Lisa HopkinsBesprekingen

Meh,
The author's don't seem to care much for Bess, which is fine.
The problem is that they seem to be ignoring evidence and viewing Bess through both a sexist and classist veil.
They make Bess's 4th husband out to be sweetly loving and long suffering but he was actually horribly miserly and even refused to pay for sheets. Kate Hubbard gives a really good account of their marital breakdown in Devices & Desires and i highly recommend it to interested parties though in general I prefer Mary Lovell's Bess of Hardwick.
I think Hubbard's book is less biased towards Bess but slow as it focuses on building and household furnishings.
It's very thorough but the focus doesn't interest me. Still her research into the breakdown of the marriage is worth reading.
While Bess may have been considered odd in her times and her interests seen as 'masculine', today we know those views to be sexist bullshit. So I'm confused why the authors seem to give weight to these ridiculous and dated arguments.
They also talk far to much about Mantel and her not at all historically accurate Wolf's Hall. I hate when non-fiction histories reference fiction.