I totally paused!

Prior to reading this book, all I really knew of Katherine of Aragon was that she was Henry VIII’s first wife, previously married to his brother Arthur.  And that I always want to call her “Katherine of Aragorn” because of LOTR.

I decided I wanted to read a bit about Katherine…ultimately I want to read a bunch about each of Henry’s wives.  But because I didn’t know much about her, I started this book not necessarily liking it much.  I had a difficult time getting used to the format, switching between an outside narative and Katherine’s personal view of different situations.

However, after Katherine went to England and married Arthur, I really started liking the story and found myself caught up it.  I was close to tears when the two of them fell in love, and absolutely crying when Arthur died.  Whether they ever really did consumate their relationship or not, the story weaved here is touching and convincing.

Learning about Katherine’s life, how so many people left her to poverty during the years she was waiting to marry Henry, was really hard to take in a sense.  It just brings to light, once again, how much women didn’t matter back then.  Makes me glad I live in the world of today, rather than the 1500’s that I romanticize in my head.  My ass would get beheaded!  Or probably hung, I’m not rich enough to be beheaded.

Probably my only complaint was that the novel stopped at Katherine’s younger life.  I would be curious to see the internal monologue created when Henry became more unfaithful, and especially during the Anne Boleyn years.

I really like the theory that Phillippa Gregory poses – that Katherine was in love with Arthur and simply lied about the consummation to fulfill his dreams for England.  In all honesty, I find it pretty unlikely that they didn’t consummate their relationship, I’ve always found it a flimsy answer.  Perhaps this is because I’m such a fan of Anne Boleyn, so I just want to believe that her marriage was valid from the start.

On the whole, this is a good book and reads pretty quickly.  I liked it quite a bit and I’m sorry it ended so quickly.

Read this book if: You like Phillippa Gregory, the characters in this book, or just historical fiction in general.  It’s a fun read!

I had a slightly harder time reading this book than I did with The Other Boleyn Girl. The way the chapters were structured, going from Anne to Jane to Katherine, was kind of hard to get used to.  But really, for the way the story was told, it’s the only way to do it, because you don’t want to be reading the same events over and over again.

Philippa Gregory states in the Author’s Note at the end of the book, “In this fictional account of the real facts I have tried to get past the convention that one wife was ugly and the other stupid…”  I only agree with half this statement – she did a good job of conveying that Anne of Cleves was not an ugly woman by any real accounts, more like she was used to different ways and as a result, her way of dressing and manners made her seem ugly.

However, the attempts at making Katherine Howard seem like she wasn’t stupid kind of fell flat for me – Katherine maybe didn’t seem stupid outright, but certainly not very smart and lacking in common sense, and above all, shallow beyond belief.  Towards the end of the book I did feel some sympathy for Katherine, but leading up to that I mostly though “Man, I’d consider beheading your conceited self too!”  I had read a bit about Katherine before reading this book, but it never really occurred to me just how young she actually was.  Women were married off at such a young age in those days, but it really was unfair to expect that she would be a good queen, especially given her predisposition to flirt and take/ask for whatever she could get.  She was a vain little girl, but I don’t really think her behavior actually warranted her fate.

I really loved the way Anne really seemed to come to life and into herself as the book progressed.  She seems like an early feminist, having the courage to stick to what she believed when it was most dangerous for her.  It’s also interesting to have some insight into her, even though it’s all fictionalized, but to get an idea of what she was like was thrilling for me.  It’s remarkable that given the circumstances, she somehow managed to avoid losing her life as a result of her marriage to Henry VIII.

I did have some issues with the way Jane Boleyn/Rochford was portrayed.  One of the big things was that once again, Philippa Gregory seems to take this one little very unlikely thing and just state it as fact – in this case that Jane and George Boleyn had a son.  There is a lot of doubt in the historical community that they ever did, and in The Other Boleyn Girl, it seemed like George never wanted anything to do with Jane.  It just seems difficult to believe, given their bad marriage and dislike of each other from the start, that they really did have a child.  I didn’t see the point in mentioning this several times in the book.

The twist of Jane maybe not actually being what they considered mad in those days, that she was faking it, was an interesting idea as well.  In the Author’s Note, she says she hopes to show that Jane was never wholely sane, but I think this is a difficult thing to say.  Although I really have no sympathy for Jane overall, she was put in a difficult position early on…what would one really do when faced with the aspect of saving their own life even at the expense of their husband?  In that day and age, the promise of her life coupled with getting the Boleyn fortunes was undoubtedly very tempting.  Up until the point where she gave evidence against Anne Boleyn and George, she really hadn’t seemed to do anything wrong – she was a wife unloved by her husband, in a forced marriage, and dealing daily with the bond between brother and sister.  It’s hard to say if her decisions were madness or simply a survival instinct.

For me, there were no real surprises about the ends of any of these women, I knew it all already.  I would like to see Philippa Gregory write some more about Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, because he seems such an interesting character.  Can you imagine being linked so closely by relation to so many people who met their end on Henry VIII’s block, yet managing to escape every time?  I’d love more exploration into what brought about such a lucky position for this man.

Overall, a good read, but I am a little glad to be done with her books that have “Boleyn” in the title.  My boyfriend is starting to call me “Boleyn”…hopefully he doesn’t have any murderous tendencies himself

The title of the book says it all, this is about the other Boleyn girl, the one nobody remembers much about.  Unless you’re a Tudor nerd and you already knew who Mary Boleyn was.  When the movie about this book came about, my boyfriend asked why it was called The Other Boleyn Girl and I said “Because no one cares about Mary Boleyn.”

One of the things that I disliked from the start was that Mary was portrayed as the youngest Boleyn.  I know that there is a wee bit of contention about her place in the family, but the general consensus is that she was at least older than Anne.  Because of this, I was disappointed that she was younger in this book.

Another thing I disliked was the portrayal of Anne as such a vapid bitch.  I know that Anne Boleyn is not reputed to have a great disposition, and that her temper and jealousy was one of the reasons that Henry VIII turned away from her, but there was just nothing good from the girl in the whole book.  Personally, I’ve always felt Anne Boleyn is a rather sympathetic person and I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for her for years.  I didn’t like to see that destroyed in any fashion.

It took me awhile to get used to this being from Mary’s perspective, in so much as there was a lot that I felt wasn’t covered by her being the focal point.  There was virtually nothing about Sir Thomas More, who is also one of my favorite people from this time period.  For me, not nearly enough about Anne’s downfall with the king, because there just has to be more than just that she never had a son.

All that being said, I did like the book and would recommend it to anyone.  I loved the portrayal of Mary’s innocense and how she was just used by her family.  The differences between this and The Tudors were also interesting to me. One of my favorite things was how the book opened with Mary thinking the king would pardon someone who ends up being beheaded, and ends on the same note.

This was also an interesting look into what life was like for women back then.  Having grown up in a post-womens lib movement world, I sometimes forget what things were like even just fifty years ago, let alone a few hundred.  I often have these romantic ideas about wishing I had been born in a much earlier time, because I do love history so and it all fascinates me.  But I read about how women were treated and I realize that if somehow I were to find myself back then, I would most certainly be beheaded.  I couldn’t marry whomever my family wanted me to marry, sleep with whoever they wanted, let them be that involved in my life.  As much as I don’t want want kids, I couldn’t imagine how horrible it would be to have to be separated from them as described in the book.

I’m also inspired to read some true accounts of Anne Boleyn’s life, I’m curious to know the most accurate descriptions of her.

And in writing this, I feel bad that I too am pushing Mary out as the other Boleyn girl.