politicalmamaduck 's review for:

The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy

4.0

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I enjoyed Jean Plaidy's first-person account of Anne Boleyn's life in retrospect from the Tower of London. It is difficult to know what Anne herself did or thought in the years before her death, as Henry VIII sought to have any remembrance of her destroyed. However, I thought that Plaidy did an admirable job of portraying her brilliant intelligence and vulnerability amidst her obvious complexity. I also appreciated that she portrayed her as essentially asexual and driven by not only ambition, but also revenge on those who had destroyed her happiness with Henry Percy. I thought that was an interesting take--that the only times Anne was ever truly happy was during her service in France and during her courtship with Henry Percy.
One conceit that Plaidy played into that I disliked was the idea that Anne had a sixth fingernail--there is no contemporary evidence for this, only circumstantial tales long after her death.
Overall a compelling portrait of one of history's most fascinating women.