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A review by sidewalk_pirate
Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings by Alison Weir
1.0
I understand, there is not much evidence to find about Mary. As interesting as it would be to learn more about this elusive person. She rubbed elbows with many great people in history. I would love to know what she thought about most of them, what her impressions were, what she thought about her own life and how she felt her family treated her.
Alas, it is not to be!
One is already used to Mrs. Weir contradicting herself within the same page of her own books, nothing new in this department also here in this book. Furthermore, the padding (desperately necessary in a book about a person where so little is known) is utterly irrelevant! The padding is not even about Mary, or her contemporaries! It is pages upon pages about improvements to the diverse manor houses and castles her family owned, made by her GRANDFATHER. Or Pages on which child was born first (ok, this is rather a point about Mary, I give you that, but the "proof" Mrs. Weir cites for her theory is utterly laughable!)
Mary is an interesting personality, however Mrs. Weir managed to make her sound utterly boring and redundant! I think this book has done poor Mary more harm then good. She has not only been overlooked by history, but evidently also by her attempted biographer, Mrs. Weir.
Save your money, do yourself a favor and read something less aggravating and ANY of Mrs Weir's books! This was not the first one I attempted. I have the same problem with ALL of her books. After a few pages I fin myself arguing out loud with the incredible audacity of Mrs. Weir's theories and the haphazard way she "proofs" them.
I am -by no means- a historian, or even what I would consider to be a expert in any way, shape or form, but I do recognize a bad book when I see one! There are much better books on the Tudors out there, albeit none about Mary at all and after having a look at this book, it should be clear why there haven't been previous attempts and why there should not be any more, unless new material is discovered about her.
Alas, it is not to be!
One is already used to Mrs. Weir contradicting herself within the same page of her own books, nothing new in this department also here in this book. Furthermore, the padding (desperately necessary in a book about a person where so little is known) is utterly irrelevant! The padding is not even about Mary, or her contemporaries! It is pages upon pages about improvements to the diverse manor houses and castles her family owned, made by her GRANDFATHER. Or Pages on which child was born first (ok, this is rather a point about Mary, I give you that, but the "proof" Mrs. Weir cites for her theory is utterly laughable!)
Mary is an interesting personality, however Mrs. Weir managed to make her sound utterly boring and redundant! I think this book has done poor Mary more harm then good. She has not only been overlooked by history, but evidently also by her attempted biographer, Mrs. Weir.
Save your money, do yourself a favor and read something less aggravating and ANY of Mrs Weir's books! This was not the first one I attempted. I have the same problem with ALL of her books. After a few pages I fin myself arguing out loud with the incredible audacity of Mrs. Weir's theories and the haphazard way she "proofs" them.
I am -by no means- a historian, or even what I would consider to be a expert in any way, shape or form, but I do recognize a bad book when I see one! There are much better books on the Tudors out there, albeit none about Mary at all and after having a look at this book, it should be clear why there haven't been previous attempts and why there should not be any more, unless new material is discovered about her.