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amylikestoread's review against another edition
2.0
DNF'ed about half way through. I normally enjoy Weir's work but this was just so dry to read. Weir has written other biographies about women where we know next to nothing about them and have very few sources to write about. This was probably Weir's worst in terms of lack of material, Mary Boleyn is rarely mentioned in this book. There are plenty of guesses made as to where she was at a certain time or how she felt, the guesses are dragged out over several pages. Two examples are whether Anne or Mary was the oldest and which sister lived in Brie I believe, both are dragged out to fill this empty biography. If you are familiar with the period I would skip this one as you're unlikely to learn anything new from this book.
hewlettelaine's review against another edition
4.0
Alison Weir admits herself that evidence for the life of Mary Boleyn, sister of Henry VIII's famous second Queen, is scant. We know that she was the King's mistress for a time before her sister caught his eye but when, why and what the result was is difficult to say with any certainty. Despite this, Mary has earned something of a reputation for being a "loose" woman, easy with her favours both in France and at home and used as an example for her sister to avoid.
Weir's task with this book is not so much to chart the life of Mary, which is almost impossible because of the lack of evidence, but to attempt to rescue her reputation from the slanders that have been laid against her. Weir spends the book examining the various claims made about Mary - she was the French King's mistress, she was Henry VIII's mistress discarded in favour of her sister, she had children by the King - and attempts to look at the evidence that exists for them. As Weir says, this book is also about the historiography of Mary and Weir looks at what historians have said about her since her own era which has led to such a skewed picture of the woman in question.
The picture that emerges is of a different person than traditional history might suggest. She does indeed seem to spend the first part of her life in a string of bad decisions that compromise her reputation and leave her as the shame of her own family. But she also becomes the only Boleyn sibling to survive and even thrive in her later life after making the bold decision to carve out her own future. Weir makes a convincing case that one of her children may well have been Henry's illegitimate offspring - and she also shows evidence for another unconnected illegitimate child belonging to Henry VIII of whom I had never heard before reading this book.
Altogether, as a reader with an interest in the Tudor era, I found this book to be very interesting, both in its subject matter and in the way that it illuminates how history is constructed - and how wrong that can sometimes be.
Weir's task with this book is not so much to chart the life of Mary, which is almost impossible because of the lack of evidence, but to attempt to rescue her reputation from the slanders that have been laid against her. Weir spends the book examining the various claims made about Mary - she was the French King's mistress, she was Henry VIII's mistress discarded in favour of her sister, she had children by the King - and attempts to look at the evidence that exists for them. As Weir says, this book is also about the historiography of Mary and Weir looks at what historians have said about her since her own era which has led to such a skewed picture of the woman in question.
The picture that emerges is of a different person than traditional history might suggest. She does indeed seem to spend the first part of her life in a string of bad decisions that compromise her reputation and leave her as the shame of her own family. But she also becomes the only Boleyn sibling to survive and even thrive in her later life after making the bold decision to carve out her own future. Weir makes a convincing case that one of her children may well have been Henry's illegitimate offspring - and she also shows evidence for another unconnected illegitimate child belonging to Henry VIII of whom I had never heard before reading this book.
Altogether, as a reader with an interest in the Tudor era, I found this book to be very interesting, both in its subject matter and in the way that it illuminates how history is constructed - and how wrong that can sometimes be.
themissyreads's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.5
Turns out the true story of the other boelyn girl is… boring, yeah, there is scandal happening but we know very little about the woman Mary Boelyn, not when she was born or even what she looked like. But what i found fascinating was the interconnectedness of history. Thats why the tudor era is fascinating. She was socially outcasted because she didnt ask permission to marry the man she loved, survived Henry 8 when none of her siblings did, and lived to be an old woman who died in her bed. And her descendants are still royals anyway! So good for Mary in the long run.
unsolvedmysteries1's review against another edition
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
I wish we had more verified knowledge of Mary Boleyn!
jemiscool's review against another edition
2.0
Normally I don't like biographies, and I didn't like this one. Why read about nine pages on which Boleyn sister is older? Why read twenty pages on Henry VIII's other mistresses before Mary? We don't know anything about their affair except that they had one anyway. Anne is way more interesting than Mary and I'd rather spend time on her, especially since, according to this book anyway, Mary has no real personality. Alison Weir doesn't have many sources to draw on and she quotes ALL THE TIME from other papers on Mary - doesn't she have enough imagination herself? No. Well, I didn't like it. This book is not about Mary. It's about Alison Weir debunking myths. Not worth it.
*I received this book through Goodreads first-reads: thank you!
*I received this book through Goodreads first-reads: thank you!