Kenilworth: A Romance is a 1821 historical novel by Walter Scott.
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, is torn between his political ambition – he's a favourite of Elizabeth I, and the gossips are saying he might marry her – and his love for Amy Robsart, whom he has married in secret. His solution is to keep Amy secluded at Cumnor Place. But Amy is getting restless with all the secrecy and her husband's increasingly rare visits, and Leicester's servant Varney is plotting an intrigue of his own.
The novel contains examples of:
- Adaptational Alternate Ending: Gaetano Donizetti's opera Il castello di Kenilworth ends happily, with Elizabeth giving her blessing to the marriage of Leicester and Amy.
- All for Nothing: In spite of Amy's efforts to get acknowledged by her husband and Tressilian’s attempts to help her, she fails and is killed and forgotten. In spite of Leicester's efforts to advance in politics and to keep Amy as his wife, he never becomes king and he loses Amy. Even the villains don't get The Bad Guy Wins, for all their efforts to remain afloat and prepared for eventualities: Varney is arrested and kills himself, and Forster dies of starvation.
- All Part of the Show: When Elizabeth first meets Amy, she thinks the latter is one of the actresses hired for the celebrations to welcome her in Kenilworth.
- Artistic Licence – History: Amy's death, which happened in 1560, takes place amid the Kenilworth pageants of 1575.
- And that's just the main plot. Illustrative details verge on Anachronism Stew. One of the entertainers in the pageant is William Shakespeare, who wasn't even born until 1564, quoting lines he wouldn't write until the 1610s!
- Babies Ever After: Among the few characters who get a happy ending are Wayland and Janet, who get married and have at least two sons (the epilogue mentions "their eldest son").
- Betty and Veronica:
- Dependable Nice Guy Edmund Tressilian and the dashing, wealthy Earl of Leicester both fall in love with Amy, and she gets utterly swept off her feet by the latter. It ends in tragedy for her, and for the two of them as well.
- Adoring, naive Country Mouse Amy and The High Queen Elizabeth for Leicester. His inability to choose between the two is the main reason the plot happens.
- Description Porn: The lavish festivities that accompany Elizabeth's visit to Kenilworth are described in great detail.
- Dogged Nice Guy: Edmund Tressilian faithfully loves Amy, who rejected him, and is prepared to defend her honour even if she loves another.
- Downer Ending: Amy dies, and Edmund, heartbroken, goes abroad and dies before his time. Leicester never becomes King of England, so his elaborate double life scheme was entirely All for Nothing, and he ends up killed later. Only several secondary characters get a happy ending.
- Driven to Suicide: Varney kills himself after his schemes are exposed.
- Elopement: Leicester and Amy eloped and married in secret, to avoid getting found out by Elizabeth.
- If I Can't Have You…: Varney is introduced with a Villainous Crush on Amy but is prepared to see her dead since she wouldn't even be civil with him, let alone accept him. He succeeds.
- Mistaken for Romance: Since Varney was the one most often seen in public with Amy, Tressilian thinks that Amy is Varney's mistress.
- Puddle-Covering Chivalry: How Walter Raleigh gets Elizabeth to notice him – by throwing his cloak over a muddy puddle in her way.
