Take a photo of a barcode or cover
qtpieash3 's review for:
The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory
I wasn't expecting to like this one that much, but I really loved it! I've not read much historical fiction and it always surprises me how much I enjoy it.
Clocking at nearly 700 pages, Gregory somehow manages to make this story seem to fly by (I tore through this in 4 days). Before picking this up, I always groaned when any monarchy questions came up on Jeopardy - I knew nothing and couldn't have told you the difference between any of the Henries, Edwards, Elizabeths, and Catherines that I knew were floating around out there. I'm amazed at how much I picked up, how much I was interested in who's related to who (I even Wikipedia'd Queen Elizabeth II to see how she's related to Henry VIII - cousins, if you're interested), and how delicious the scandals were. I always picture the royalty being so formal and stuffy, but they were craaazy - who would have thought? There's lying, sneaking, sham marriages, baby stealing, incest, rivalries, and blatant deception just to name a few things. It's like a bad soap opera, but without the guilt, since it's based in actual historical events.
Interestingly, the sole knowledge I had about Henry VIII when I picked up this book was from a TV show I saw on the Science channel, NatGeo or the like where it talked about how obese Henry VIII was. I vividly remember the show's host going to a quaint little grocery store/market in England and buying all the food that Henry would eat in one day. It was ridiculous and explained his burgeoning waistline. It was hard to reconcile this mental picture (and handy computer generated 3D images of how he looked) with this supposedly dashing young prince who had women practically throwing themselves at him. However, now enamored with all things Tudor, I added The Tudors Showtime series to my Netflix queue (instant, thankfully) and can definitely see the appeal if he was anything like Jonathan Rhys Meyers! And the movie adaptation of the book has been added to my Netflix queue, as well. I don't know how well 700 pages will translate into a 2 hour or so movie, but I can't wait to see it.
Most people know what this story is about, so I'll be brief - two sisters, Mary and Anne Boleyn, are young women in the court of Henry VIII in England. He's married to Catherine, who was married to Henry's older brother, Arthur, but after his untimely death, was married to Henry. She was a few years older than him and they were married for 24 or so years. During their marriage, though, he had numerous affairs with various women who were Catherine's ladies in waiting (and this was generally taken as a given and it was unspoken rule that the queen would just have to deal). One such affair, was with Mary, beginning (according to Gregory) when she was about 14. Mary bore Henry 2 children, including 1 son. During her second pregnancy, Henry began to get bored and started seeing Mary's sister, Anne. While Anne never slept with Henry (according to Gregory) until they were nearly wed, she convinced him to dethrone Catherine (who only had 1 daughter with Henry despite his deperate need for a son to carry on his reign). Drama ensues all over the place, people are beheaded, charges of incest and sorcery are leveled, and things get ugly. Of course, Henry had 6 wives, so predictably, things don't end well for Anne. Gregory's book is unique in that while most know of Anne Boleyn, the story is told from Mary's POV. Hence, the eponymous title of the book, the other Boleyn girl. I found the relationship between Mary and Anne fascinating - they loved and hated each other so passionately. Their relationship, especially Anne's, with their older brother George was also interesting. I also found the interplay between Mary and Queen Catherine intriguing since the Queen knew what Mary was doing with her husband. However, formal rules of the court prevailed and awkwardness ensues.
Obviously Gregory took some liberties with the characters and some events; very little is actually known about Mary and George and Anne may not have had an incestuous relationship in her attempts to bear Henry a son, and George may not have been gay (and really, aren't the last two mutually exclusive). But to me, getting to see the characters so up close and personal really brought them to life, especially since I wasn't expecting them to be so exciting or... real, even. I was expecting them to flat, proper, and dull. I'll definitely be picking up more of Gregory's books; she's penned a prequel and a sequel to this one that I'm excited to get my hands on. Even if this isn't your typical genre, I'd encourage you to at least try it - I know I was pleasantly surprised.
Clocking at nearly 700 pages, Gregory somehow manages to make this story seem to fly by (I tore through this in 4 days). Before picking this up, I always groaned when any monarchy questions came up on Jeopardy - I knew nothing and couldn't have told you the difference between any of the Henries, Edwards, Elizabeths, and Catherines that I knew were floating around out there. I'm amazed at how much I picked up, how much I was interested in who's related to who (I even Wikipedia'd Queen Elizabeth II to see how she's related to Henry VIII - cousins, if you're interested), and how delicious the scandals were. I always picture the royalty being so formal and stuffy, but they were craaazy - who would have thought? There's lying, sneaking, sham marriages, baby stealing, incest, rivalries, and blatant deception just to name a few things. It's like a bad soap opera, but without the guilt, since it's based in actual historical events.
Interestingly, the sole knowledge I had about Henry VIII when I picked up this book was from a TV show I saw on the Science channel, NatGeo or the like where it talked about how obese Henry VIII was. I vividly remember the show's host going to a quaint little grocery store/market in England and buying all the food that Henry would eat in one day. It was ridiculous and explained his burgeoning waistline. It was hard to reconcile this mental picture (and handy computer generated 3D images of how he looked) with this supposedly dashing young prince who had women practically throwing themselves at him. However, now enamored with all things Tudor, I added The Tudors Showtime series to my Netflix queue (instant, thankfully) and can definitely see the appeal if he was anything like Jonathan Rhys Meyers! And the movie adaptation of the book has been added to my Netflix queue, as well. I don't know how well 700 pages will translate into a 2 hour or so movie, but I can't wait to see it.
Most people know what this story is about, so I'll be brief - two sisters, Mary and Anne Boleyn, are young women in the court of Henry VIII in England. He's married to Catherine, who was married to Henry's older brother, Arthur, but after his untimely death, was married to Henry. She was a few years older than him and they were married for 24 or so years. During their marriage, though, he had numerous affairs with various women who were Catherine's ladies in waiting (and this was generally taken as a given and it was unspoken rule that the queen would just have to deal). One such affair, was with Mary, beginning (according to Gregory) when she was about 14. Mary bore Henry 2 children, including 1 son. During her second pregnancy, Henry began to get bored and started seeing Mary's sister, Anne. While Anne never slept with Henry (according to Gregory) until they were nearly wed, she convinced him to dethrone Catherine (who only had 1 daughter with Henry despite his deperate need for a son to carry on his reign). Drama ensues all over the place, people are beheaded, charges of incest and sorcery are leveled, and things get ugly. Of course, Henry had 6 wives, so predictably, things don't end well for Anne. Gregory's book is unique in that while most know of Anne Boleyn, the story is told from Mary's POV. Hence, the eponymous title of the book, the other Boleyn girl. I found the relationship between Mary and Anne fascinating - they loved and hated each other so passionately. Their relationship, especially Anne's, with their older brother George was also interesting. I also found the interplay between Mary and Queen Catherine intriguing since the Queen knew what Mary was doing with her husband. However, formal rules of the court prevailed and awkwardness ensues.
Obviously Gregory took some liberties with the characters and some events; very little is actually known about Mary and George and Anne may not have had an incestuous relationship in her attempts to bear Henry a son, and George may not have been gay (and really, aren't the last two mutually exclusive). But to me, getting to see the characters so up close and personal really brought them to life, especially since I wasn't expecting them to be so exciting or... real, even. I was expecting them to flat, proper, and dull. I'll definitely be picking up more of Gregory's books; she's penned a prequel and a sequel to this one that I'm excited to get my hands on. Even if this isn't your typical genre, I'd encourage you to at least try it - I know I was pleasantly surprised.