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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I loved everything about this. The story of the Boleyns - Mary, Anne and George. It’s mainly told from Mary’s perspective and she witnesses her sisters rise to Queen as her influence and love with Henry VIII wanes.
Anne is portrayed as a power-hungry, selfish woman and with the backing of her brother and family she captured Henry’s eye until the seeds of her plan unravelled and she was beheaded.
This story came to life and the characters and court of Henry’s England were so well described. Again this took me down the google rabbit hole of finding out so much more about them. Mary’s love later in her life was a wonderful part of the story.
I am so glad I picked these books up, it’s right book right time. Philippa Gregory is such a wonderful writer and the audio book was brilliant.
Historical fiction at its finest !!
Anne is portrayed as a power-hungry, selfish woman and with the backing of her brother and family she captured Henry’s eye until the seeds of her plan unravelled and she was beheaded.
This story came to life and the characters and court of Henry’s England were so well described. Again this took me down the google rabbit hole of finding out so much more about them. Mary’s love later in her life was a wonderful part of the story.
I am so glad I picked these books up, it’s right book right time. Philippa Gregory is such a wonderful writer and the audio book was brilliant.
Historical fiction at its finest !!
An AMAZING read. By far the best fictional non classic I have ever read. It kept me captivated and intrigued throughout the entire read.
Knowing very little about Anne Boleyn and even less about her sister, I really enjoyed this story. I would like to know how much is true and how much was factionalized.
Even if this isn't Anne's story, anything to add to her legacy is already amazing to me. This time in Henry VIII life is my favourite and it's great to see this amazing perception of this period in the eyes of Mary Boleyn.
Loved it. Historical fiction at it's best. You know what's going to happen and you still can't put it down. This was my first Phillipa Gregory and got me to read many more. But not her Wideacre series, those are icky.
In anticipation of the movie version, I indulged my guilty pleasure side with this historical fiction. The author takes license with the historical facts (all well documented in reality) but manages to show Ann Boleyn's effort at getting to the throne.
I found it much more sexually explicit and more twisted than I ever would have imagined it would be... even after seeing the Tudors on Showtime. :) The thing that was jarring was the sex talk between the sisters, describing acts and what not. It didn't seem wholly believable, given the time period.
I knew going into it that this book is not historically accurate - many reviewers seem to take issue with that, but it IS a novel.
I like that the book was told from Mary's point of view, but she was a little too sweet and innocent-acting for my taste. On the other hand, Anne is painted as too mean and self-centered for my taste. :)
I enjoyed the story, and Mary's fight for a normal life amid all the chaos of the court. I liked her love story with William, and how it turned out.
I knew going into it that this book is not historically accurate - many reviewers seem to take issue with that, but it IS a novel.
I like that the book was told from Mary's point of view, but she was a little too sweet and innocent-acting for my taste. On the other hand, Anne is painted as too mean and self-centered for my taste. :)
I enjoyed the story, and Mary's fight for a normal life amid all the chaos of the court. I liked her love story with William, and how it turned out.
(Side-note, don't try the abridged versions of books you love. It will only upset you.)
As this is the first Gregory novel I read, it was nice to go back to basics with a new perspective. Especially since, as one of her first, it's interesting to see what she chose to do with the history of the time. By making Mary the lead voice, it leads to a certain detachment from the "truth" of the events, when Gregory usually likes to try and give an explanation to the things that history has said will probably never be solved (whether or not Katherine and Arthur consummated their marriage, the identity of those who killed the Princes in the Tower, etc). Anne's guilt of all her accusations, told from the perspective of Mary, comes from someone who believes the worst in her without actually knowing the truth, and so Gregory allows for Anne to remain the villain of the story. Of course, history has gone back and forth in whether or not she deserves to be one - certainly as time's gone on, more of the blame has fallen on Henry's shoulders (as Gregory has often insinuated it should) and Anne has become more of a feminist icon as a women attempting to seize power and prove her worth in a world where, in the Duke of Norfolk's words, "Men still rule - that much has not changed." Ultimately, from the perspective of a warring sister, we see more of the villainous side of Anne (especially since Mary's allegiance is often in Katherine's camp), and not the side that grants her more sympathy, which many modern adaptations tend to lean towards.
There are other interesting pieces to consider, such as the relative innocence of Mary (apart from her affair with Henry) and the question of George's homosexuality or bisexuality, since both things have been debated widely amongst historians. Of course as the years go by, new interpretations of old texts arise and new conclusions are drawn (maybe new things are even discovered), but it's interesting to consider what information Gregory had available to her and what decisions she chose to make for storytelling purposes (since, after all, this is a work of fiction, and ultimately her imagination is the cornerstone behind it all).
As this is the first Gregory novel I read, it was nice to go back to basics with a new perspective. Especially since, as one of her first, it's interesting to see what she chose to do with the history of the time. By making Mary the lead voice, it leads to a certain detachment from the "truth" of the events, when Gregory usually likes to try and give an explanation to the things that history has said will probably never be solved (whether or not Katherine and Arthur consummated their marriage, the identity of those who killed the Princes in the Tower, etc). Anne's guilt of all her accusations, told from the perspective of Mary, comes from someone who believes the worst in her without actually knowing the truth, and so Gregory allows for Anne to remain the villain of the story. Of course, history has gone back and forth in whether or not she deserves to be one - certainly as time's gone on, more of the blame has fallen on Henry's shoulders (as Gregory has often insinuated it should) and Anne has become more of a feminist icon as a women attempting to seize power and prove her worth in a world where, in the Duke of Norfolk's words, "Men still rule - that much has not changed." Ultimately, from the perspective of a warring sister, we see more of the villainous side of Anne (especially since Mary's allegiance is often in Katherine's camp), and not the side that grants her more sympathy, which many modern adaptations tend to lean towards.
There are other interesting pieces to consider, such as the relative innocence of Mary (apart from her affair with Henry) and the question of George's homosexuality or bisexuality, since both things have been debated widely amongst historians. Of course as the years go by, new interpretations of old texts arise and new conclusions are drawn (maybe new things are even discovered), but it's interesting to consider what information Gregory had available to her and what decisions she chose to make for storytelling purposes (since, after all, this is a work of fiction, and ultimately her imagination is the cornerstone behind it all).