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Antonia Fraser
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The Warrior Queens: The Legends and the Lives of the Women Who Have Led Their Nations in War Paperback – April 14, 1990

by Antonia Fraser (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 48 ratings
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In this panoramic work of history, Lady Antonia Fraser looks at women who led armies and empires: Cleopatra, Isabella of Spain, Jinga Mbandi, Margaret Thatcher, and Indira Gandhi, among others.
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  1. Print length
    383 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
  4. Publication date
    April 14, 1990
  5. Dimensions
    5.13 x 1.06 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    9780679728160
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0679728160
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Warrior Queens is lore-packed...and fascinating to read....Fraser has assembled a remarkable group of women for our contemplation....They have outmaneuvered, outtalked, outblustered, and in some cases outshot and outridden the cream of the crop.... Fraser is to be congratulated for rescuing them from their own myths and for giving them their due as individuals." -- Margaret Atwood, Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Fascinating...it is a pleasure to encounter the kind of quick and lively mind that informs every page...the bright and steady pilot light of Antonia Fraser's intelligence." -- The New York Times Book Review

"Antonia Fraser's The Warrior Queens is an intelligent and artful study of women rulers who commanded in battle.... Ms. Fraser at once clarifies history and suggests the many ways that myths betray history.... She holds our attention and she misses nothing." -- The New Yorker

"Lady Antonia catches fire.... There is humor. There is lots of fascinating detail on the sexual mythology that has surrounded most women rulers. There is real insight into how women wield power.... There is a pleasure in having the stories of so many remarkable women gathered in one place." -- Chicago Sun-Times

"Cleopatra, Zenobia, Tamara, Jinga Mbandi of Angola, Catherine the Great and Caterina Sforza, England's two Matildas and Tuscany's one, the beautiful Queen Louise of Prussia and Queen Elizabeth I of England, the names roll on as these women led their countries into victory and defeat.... Fraser, always a diligent historian, has... become a graceful writer and achieved the formidable task of winding a variety of women and countries onto one skein." -- Cleveland Plain-Dealer

From the Publisher

"In juxtaposing the myths about women with the careers of some extraordinary women, Ms. Fraser at once clarifies history and suggests the many ways that myths betray history." --Naomi Bliven, The New Yorker

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0679728163
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (April 14, 1990)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 383 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780679728160
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0679728160
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.13 x 1.06 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 48 ratings

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Antonia Fraser

Antonia Fraser

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Antonia Fraser is the author of numerous novels and historical works including Marie Antoinette, The Wives of Henry VIII, Mary Queen of Scots, and Faith and Treason. She is also famous for her Jemima Shore series of mysteries. She and her husband, Harold Pinter, live in London.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
48 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Edith S. Shepherd
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional, as with all books from this author
Reviewed in the United States on July 23, 2017
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Antonia Fraser has written history as no one else has written history. Her biographies of the queens and mistresses of French kings are riveting.
The biography of Mary, Queen of Scot was exceptional. THE WARRIOR QUEENS is as wonderful as the other books. Edith
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mum of one
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great book to read to your children and pass it ...
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2014
I am an avid reader, who especially loves history. This is a great book to read to your children and pass it on to them.
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Miranda Good
3.0 out of 5 stars Slow Going
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2006
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For all the exalted reputation Lady Antonia Fraser enjoys as a historian and writer, I expected this work to be far more informative and entertaining than it actually was. Despite her fascinating subject, Lady Fraser manages to flog it to death with endless historical references, obscure citations and literary allusions. I found the text to be so cluttered up and bogged down with arcane details and research notes that the actual subject matter was obscured by the author's very erudition. In a word: BORING. I hoped that after determinedly slogging through two opening chapters of explication and introduction, the body of the book pertaining to the fascinating women selected to represent history's Warrior Queens would pick up speed and capture my fast fading interest. Nope. Ponderous at best, the writing never seems to catch fire and I found myself hoping the next chapter would be better than the one I was reading. This is slow going and fails to reward the reader who actually gets through it. The last chapter of "summation" just repeats quotations and points made throughout the main text. Very disappointing and far from Lady Fraser's best effort. This more closely resembles the senior thesis of a graduate who has spent too much time in the library than the sparkling historical depiction of female political and military leaders throughout time which I was hoping to find.
17 people found this helpful
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Paul Lawrence
4.0 out of 5 stars Cracking subject, laborious prose.
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2010
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Boadicea. Yeah, you know the one. Led a bunch of Celts who were still using chariots against Roman legions with predictable results. Well, she is all through this book - which is a pity. You see, the great value of this work to me was it's promise of discussion of...well... warrior queens. It's such a fascinating subject and is crying out for a book really, and certainly Lady Fraser is a well known author of history and she has certainly had a successful career. And as I read this book I thought that she'd done a good job of coalescing a bunch of sources for some of the characters she discusses quite well. She doesn't seem to have done any original research but she must have spent quite some time going through some obscure reference works -as her succinct notes and bibliography attest.

But - Lady Fraser spends the first 90+ pages waffling on about Boadicea. Now there is nothing wrong with that per se, it's just that first of all the book is only 330 pages long and secondly, with all the interesting and amazing women featured in this book Boadicea is by far the best known in the English speaking world and, conversely, therefore probably the least interesting for the average armchair history buff. Not only that, but the good Lady Fraser relentlessly drags the Celtic queen into discussion of the other women rulers she is covering either to point out similarities or differences. In effect the others are viewed through a Boadicea prism and given the paucity of information about her that's perhaps not a great hook for the author to hang her hat on.

That's not to say that much of this wasn't new to me and I am certainly happy to have bought it. It provides concise discussion of a range of women rulers who either led their nations in war or were directly involved in the war effort of their nations in some capacity - Queen Tamara of Georgia, Queen Isabella of Spain, Zenobia, the Rani of Jhansi and others are all interesting in their own way and unless you are a specialist you are probably going to get all the information you'd ever want on each of them here. And the aforementioned notes and bibliography will assist those hankering for more. And the various devices used by these women rulers to maintain their rule in historical times when it was very much a mans world is covered extensively (smaller than average type helps the author pack a punch with an otherwise average sized book).

The dense prose of the author means this book is probably a hard slog for the layman which is in some ways a pity as she has chosen a real corker of a subject to cover in this book. And that, as well as her myopic fascination with Boadicea, seems to consign this book to the domain of real history buffs as opposed to any general readership looking for something different to read about - the sort of literary equivalent to a breezy TV history show. A healthy four stars for the subject matter, the research, the gumption to take on something of this nature, but you have to be receptive to the thickly worded prose and classical allusions.
23 people found this helpful
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Amanda J Greenberger
5.0 out of 5 stars Boadicea's Chariot
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 1999
Lady Fraser's book is an excellent treatment of her topic. I was concerned that it might be too politically correct, but in fact she has examined the ways in which women have accepted and cemented positions of power. Her analysis treats on a wide historical range and does not limit itself to the familiar figures: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Victoria, etc. Her style is informative but not difficult and pleasant without being overly colloquial. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how women present themselves in order to attain and hold power and to people interested in learning more about some histories they would probably not otherwise come across.
46 people found this helpful
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Ricky Hunter
5.0 out of 5 stars Boadicea to Margaret Thatcher
Reviewed in the United States on August 11, 2000
This book, like many by Antonia Fraser, was very entertaining and quite thrilling. There was a British bias but it helped to frame the book and there were many side journeys to other nations to keep this journey fascinating.
What was most interesting was how the various women used being women to their advantage as well as how their enemies also used their femaleness against them. Antonia Fraser weaves all these women together but clearly presents their differences. They are all linked by being women but it is shown how that very similarity can be so differently used and percieved by all these various warriors. The inidivduals that come out of this story are unique and interesting. It is these vivid brief portraits that carry this book along. Well done.
31 people found this helpful
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Dianna B
1.0 out of 5 stars Just saying....
Reviewed in the United States on January 13, 2019
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Well it's hard to get into this book.
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Astara
3.0 out of 5 stars Not up to standards
Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2019
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I have read other books by Antonia Fraser and enjoyed them (in particular Mary Queen of Scots). I am also a fan of Boudicca so was looking forward to reading this, But after wading through 3-4-5 pages on nothing more than how people spell and speak her name I gave up.
3 people found this helpful
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