bibliogramma (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bibliogramma) wrote2009-04-08 08:10 pm
bibliogramma) wrote2009-04-08 08:10 pm
Entry tags:
Those Crazy Tudors
The Other Boleyn Girl, Philippa Gregory
I suppose no one would be surprised if I told you that I really enjoyed this book. I like good historical fiction, I really have a fetish for the Tudors, and I prefer books that focus on women's experiences, so this particular novel hit a lot of my happy places.
Gregory makes use of some disputed theories, which is of course why this is a historical novel and not a biography, but unlike some writers of historical fiction, she really doesn't stray too far from the basic elements of what is believed to be historically accurate about the Boleyn family, she simply adds a lot of material to those areas of Mary and Anne's lives that we have no solid contemporary evidence to speak of.
Many historians doubt that the two children Mary bore during her marriage to Sir William Carey were actually the children of Henry VIII, just as many historians assume that Henry and Mary's relationship ended some time before his pursuit of Anne began. However, there is a lot of debate about the ages of both Anne and Mary, and about the dates of their relationships with Henry, and it is an interesting theory to build a historical novel on.
Gregory places considerable focus on the intense politics of the Tudor court, the family councils in which the Howard-Boleyn families decide just which girls of the family are to be tossed before the King in order to gain favour, money, and property for the family - there's even a lovely little comment made by her uncle Howard to Mary about all of the young Howard girls being raised at their grandmother's estate to be used in court politics at some future date, as most Tudor afficionados would be well aware that one of those girls waiting their turn is Catherine Howard, Henry's doomed fifth wife.
There is also a stong consciousness of what it is like to be a woman in these circumstances, considered as nothing but a pawn, an object to be bartered for power and wealth. Gregory makes it clear that the ultimate decisions each of the Boleyn daughters make concerning their lives are attempts to gain control - Anne's desire to be, not mistress but queen, and Mary's desire to leave the court behind and live a quiet rural life.
Gregory, I think, has been strongly influenced by Alison Weir's writing about the Tudor court and its various personages, and that, I think, has made for an interesting portrayal of both Boleyn sisters.
I suppose no one would be surprised if I told you that I really enjoyed this book. I like good historical fiction, I really have a fetish for the Tudors, and I prefer books that focus on women's experiences, so this particular novel hit a lot of my happy places.
Gregory makes use of some disputed theories, which is of course why this is a historical novel and not a biography, but unlike some writers of historical fiction, she really doesn't stray too far from the basic elements of what is believed to be historically accurate about the Boleyn family, she simply adds a lot of material to those areas of Mary and Anne's lives that we have no solid contemporary evidence to speak of.
Many historians doubt that the two children Mary bore during her marriage to Sir William Carey were actually the children of Henry VIII, just as many historians assume that Henry and Mary's relationship ended some time before his pursuit of Anne began. However, there is a lot of debate about the ages of both Anne and Mary, and about the dates of their relationships with Henry, and it is an interesting theory to build a historical novel on.
Gregory places considerable focus on the intense politics of the Tudor court, the family councils in which the Howard-Boleyn families decide just which girls of the family are to be tossed before the King in order to gain favour, money, and property for the family - there's even a lovely little comment made by her uncle Howard to Mary about all of the young Howard girls being raised at their grandmother's estate to be used in court politics at some future date, as most Tudor afficionados would be well aware that one of those girls waiting their turn is Catherine Howard, Henry's doomed fifth wife.
There is also a stong consciousness of what it is like to be a woman in these circumstances, considered as nothing but a pawn, an object to be bartered for power and wealth. Gregory makes it clear that the ultimate decisions each of the Boleyn daughters make concerning their lives are attempts to gain control - Anne's desire to be, not mistress but queen, and Mary's desire to leave the court behind and live a quiet rural life.
Gregory, I think, has been strongly influenced by Alison Weir's writing about the Tudor court and its various personages, and that, I think, has made for an interesting portrayal of both Boleyn sisters.