Goodreads | Holly's review

Holly's review

The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory

[close]

blog this review

Copy/paste the text below into your blog.

<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16180.The_Boleyn_Inheritance?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Boleyn Inheritance" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1166719849m/16180.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16180.The_Boleyn_Inheritance?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Boleyn Inheritance</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9987.Philippa_Gregory">Philippa Gregory</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18935125?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>I picked this book up after seeing the film version of The Other Boleyn Girl, as this novel picks up immediately following that one in the timeline. I love historical fiction, where a writer breathes life and personality into dates and facts in a real story, and this book was not disappointment. It is cleverly told in alternating chapters by three very different characters in the same story: Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's third wife, who arrives to her arranged marriage not even speaking English, much less understanding the politics of the rich and vain English court; Katherine Howard, the young silly teenage maid in Anne's service who becomes Henry's fourth wife; and Jane Boleyn, Anne's sister-in-law who is the head lady in waiting for both queen, eye-deep in politics and mourning the loss of her husband George who was beheaded as Anne's lover due in part to the evidence she gave against them. Multiple perspectives in the narration give at least the illusion of a lot of flesh to the story. This is a tragic tale of a mad and willful King and the terror of being a woman of the time at court with him. If I have a criticism of the story, it is not in the well-researched and intimate writing, but that ultimately, this is a story in which you are swallowed up in flawed, terrified, emotional, deceitful female minds. I doubt a male reader would finish the book. I feel it could have been edited down to two-thirds of its size and still leave the same emotional impression on the reader. 
<br/>
<br/>The audio version is EXQUISITELY read by Davina Porter (Jane Boleyn), Bianca Amato (Anne of Cleves), and Charlotte Parry (Katherine Howard), and I suspect adds much to the value and impact of the book. I am glad that I listened to this instead of reading it.
<br/>
<br/>
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/137564?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Holly's review
rating:
bookshelves: audiobook, historial-fiction

I picked this book up after seeing the film version of The Other Boleyn Girl, as this novel picks up immediately following that one in the timeline. I love historical fiction, where a writer breathes life and personality into dates and facts in a real story, and this book was not disappointment. It is cleverly told in alternating chapters by three very different characters in the same story: Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's third wife, who arrives to her arranged marriage not even speaking English, much less understanding the politics of the rich and vain English court; Katherine Howard, the young silly teenage maid in Anne's service who becomes Henry's fourth wife; and Jane Boleyn, Anne's sister-in-law who is the head lady in waiting for both queen, eye-deep in politics and mourning the loss of her husband George who was beheaded as Anne's lover due in part to the evidence she gave against them. Multiple perspectives in the narration give at least the illusion of a lot of flesh to the sto...more

Like this review? yes flag

comments (showing 0-0 of 0)

newest »

date

all Holly's books »