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aethelgifu 's review for:
The Red Queen
by Philippa Gregory
Oh dear, after a return to form with 'The White Queen' Philippa Gregory has returned to the low of 'The Other Queen' with this novel about Margaret Beaufort, told form Margaret's point of view.
Gregory's ambition with this cycle of novels [five and counting] is to tell the story of the Wars of the Roses from the perspective of the women involved so the great set piece battles should be 'noises off', if you like. This worked for the 'White Queen' as Elizabeth Woodville and therefore the reader could hear about the battles through reported speech from participants as she was at the centre of politics.
However Gregory loses her first person narrative after only 124 pages into this novel as for much of the period in question Margaret was away from court and her second husband didn't always fight. This is a major structural weakness as is ending the novel with 36 pages of third person narrative of the Battle of Bosworth.
Margaret is such an interesting character [politician, patron of learning] but all of that is lost in this novel which reduces her to her piety and ambition. Margaret had a very traumatic gynaecological history but nowhere is the effect of this on her psychology or actions explored. Is Gregory trying to suggest that there is more to women than biology or was she just not able to deal with it?
I would have loved to have read about the Margaret Beaufort who paid someone to go on pilgrimage for her because she was too busy playing cards! [See 'Blood Sisters' by Sarah Gristwood]
So not as good as the 'White Queen' and leaving me worried that Gregory can't sustain her Cousin's War 'project'.
Gregory's ambition with this cycle of novels [five and counting] is to tell the story of the Wars of the Roses from the perspective of the women involved so the great set piece battles should be 'noises off', if you like. This worked for the 'White Queen' as Elizabeth Woodville and therefore the reader could hear about the battles through reported speech from participants as she was at the centre of politics.
However Gregory loses her first person narrative after only 124 pages into this novel as for much of the period in question Margaret was away from court and her second husband didn't always fight. This is a major structural weakness as is ending the novel with 36 pages of third person narrative of the Battle of Bosworth.
Margaret is such an interesting character [politician, patron of learning] but all of that is lost in this novel which reduces her to her piety and ambition. Margaret had a very traumatic gynaecological history but nowhere is the effect of this on her psychology or actions explored. Is Gregory trying to suggest that there is more to women than biology or was she just not able to deal with it?
I would have loved to have read about the Margaret Beaufort who paid someone to go on pilgrimage for her because she was too busy playing cards! [See 'Blood Sisters' by Sarah Gristwood]
So not as good as the 'White Queen' and leaving me worried that Gregory can't sustain her Cousin's War 'project'.