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The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr.Dee
 
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The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr.Dee (Paperback)

by Benjamin Woolley (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Flamingo; New edition edition (4 Mar 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0006552021
  • ISBN-13: 978-0006552024
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.2 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 120,971 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #9 in  Books > Biography > Theatre & Performance Art > Magicians

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
There was only one man to be honoured by Queen Elizabeth I with the title "my philosopher", but even this exalted title does not do justice to Dr John Dee (1527-1608), one of the Elizabethan era's most brilliant and colourful characters, whose long and eventful life is chronicled in Benjamin Woolley's biography The Queen's Conjuror: The Science and Magi c of Dr Dee. Dee's long career as scholar, scientist, magician and political adviser spanned one of the most turbulent periods of English history, from the death of Henry VIII and England's split with Rome, to the decadent court of James I. Working for the young, embattled Elizabeth, Dee became "an intelligencer", "a seeker of hidden knowledge, philosophical and scientific, as well as political", helping his sovereign to "become an adept at the magical practice of monarchy", as he advised on issues as diverse as foreign policy, internal security, calendrical reformation, overseas exploration, and "spiritual communication".

Woolley is particularly fascinated by Dee's immersion in magic and the occult and his claims that he could "summon the divine secrets of the universe from angels and archangels". It was this involvement in the occult that was to ultimately lead to Dee's fall from grace. The majority of the book deals with Dee's involvement with the sinister Edward Kelley, whose crystal gazing and communications with angels were to lead Dee into virtual exile in central Europe, before his return home in 1589 "after six years, thousands of miles, some triumphs, several disasters, a few accolades and numerous humiliations". Wooley's focus of the increasingly twisted relationship between Dee and Kelley's runs the risk of sidelining Dee's many other achievements, but his description of their magical "actions" is convincing and spooky, and captures Dee's fatal inability to resist his involvement in what he called the "strange participation" between the living and the dead. --Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'Fresh and original Woolley thinks and writes beautifully. This is a distinguished and rather brilliant book - it's also a rattling good story.' Lisa Jardine ''A fascinating, brilliant account of the Renaissance world picture' Kathryn Hughes, New Statesman 'Woolley handsomely captures a society torn between rationality and romance, cynicism and hero worship'. New Scientist 'An informative and enlightening book. It offers concise and lucid explanations of Dee's more abstruse and arcane theories. And it is immensely enjoyable, its narrative exciting and inexorable. I have not read as stimulating a study of the Elizabethan period since Charles Nicholl's book on Marlowe, the Reckoning'. Thomas Wright, Daily Telegraph

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Now *that's* magic!, 9 Jan 2007
By S. Bailey "will work for books" (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
It would be very difficult to write a dull biography of John Dee. He was perhaps the archetypal Renaissance man; astronomer, astrologer, explorer and mathematician, he was a friend of Elizabeth I but died in poverty, reviled for his spiritualism.

Based on Dee's private diaries, Woolley's biography is filled with fascinating detail, not only of his experiments, but of Elizabethan court life and society. Thorough without being tedious, this is always eminently readable. And - hurrah! - it has proper citations, an extensive bibliography and a decent index, thus proving once and for all that this kind of slightly populist history does not have to abandon all proper academic convention.

If I have one misgiving, it's that the central, apparently driving force for much of Dee's life, his relationship with Edward Kelly, is under-analysed. Certainly, the facts about Kelly are few enough; but aside from a single, speculative mention of some passing evidence for Kelly's being an apostate priest, no consideration is given to his origins. More importantly, there is little comment on the true nature of the spiritual 'actions' undertaken by the two men. Did Kelly genuinely believe in his visions? And what was his hold on Dee, that he could pursuade him to abandon his morals so far as to exchange wives?

This aside, the book is excellent. In the twenty-first century, we have forgotten that the separation between science and magic is a very recent thing. Woolley takes us straight into the mind of a man for whom they were identical. Recommended.
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14 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Tall tales, 27 Aug 2002
By Andy Millward (Broxbourne, Herts, UK) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)      
On this evidence, what might you make of "Dr" John Dee, Scientist, Philosopher, Astronomer, Astrologer, Librarian, Religious dilitante, and apparent correspondent with angels? Learned, though without an obvious career path other than the aspiration to act as consultant philosopher to the Queen. Gullible certainly, based on his curious and lengthy relationship with "skryer" Edward Kelley.

Woolley has steered a path of objectivity through Dee's strange life in the context of 16th Century religious and political mores. He has researched impressively, but you can't help feeling he has failed to get to the bottom of Dee's strange existence, and in so doing has fallen between two stools: Neither truly an academic work (a great many concepts are outlined, but few analysed with the rigour of a scholar), nor particularly the popularist work it desires to be, we are left with a series of cartoons which present a bizarre and incomplete view of the subject.

Brave try, but I wish Mr Woolley had filled in more of the gaps and attempted more informed speculation.

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6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A good place to start when learning about enochian magick, 23 Jul 2005
By A Customer
If you are someone who is interested in Enochian Magick, this can be a great place to start. The books itself does not go into much detail about the scrying sessions with Dee and Kelley but do not let that put you off.

It is a fascinating tale of a man who seemed to be far ahead of his time, and who also seemed to miss oportunities due to plain old bad luck. The book also gives a glimpse into what he was like as a husband and father as well, which really helps makes the reader see him more as a "real" person.

After reading the book, it gives one a good foundation to go on and read books which delve a lot more deeply into Enochian Magick itself as you have a better understanding of the timeline over which the information was received.

If possible, treat yourself to a trip to the British Museum in London to Dee's actual scrying material! After reading the book you will be able to appreciate it so much more.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Falls between the stools
I agree with one of the other reviewers in that the book seems to aim at a populist audience but then veers towards being an academic book. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mr X

2.0 out of 5 stars Dissapointing
I was dissapointed in this work. An enormous amount of the middle of the book seems like an uncritical transcription from Dee's diary describing the skrying sessions and what Dee... Read more
Published 12 months ago by J. Harvey

4.0 out of 5 stars great accout
this is only just a snapshot into the life and inner workings of one of great forefathers of modern day occultism. Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2003 by wicce_k

4.0 out of 5 stars A very readable and thought-provoking book
John Dee comes across in this very readable book as something of a fool. Which in my opinion is unlikely to be the case because he was extremely learned and one of the greatest... Read more
Published on 11 April 2001 by bobobob5

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