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Summary: Intrigue in the Tudor Courts
Review: With just a little too much romance to be historical novels and far too much history to be romance novels, Philippa Gregory defies categories in her two immensely readable and wonderfully informative stories of 16th century England: "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Queen's Fool." That she is able to saturate her novels with history is less surprising when one realizes that she has a history degree from the University of Sussex and a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh, but that she is able to bring history to life with such apparent ease and without breaking the rhythm of her narrative is most impressive.Mary Boleyn, Anne's sister, narrates the first, chronologically, of these two books: "The Other Boleyn Girl." She is Henry VIII's mistress and bears him two children before her more famous sister, Anne, usurps her place. Historically, that is fact, at least the first part is. Whether Anne actually connived to unseat her sister is less clear, though Gregory certainly gives a convincing case of "what-if?" Beginning with Henry's attentions to Mary, the story continues through a rumble of bedding, wedding, and ultimately Anne's beheading. Along the way Gregory paints a picture of a court in which everyone must look over his shoulder constantly, marriages are made for convenience and political alliances, and men, whether father, brother or husband, control women and use them as pawns in a risky game of power. One sister resists, the other cooperates. From the beginning, Gregory paints a picture of sisterly rivalry weighed against sisterly love. Ultimately, sisterly love wins, though the rivalry proves Anne's undoing. Gregory continues the two themes of sisterly love and rivalry and women obeying (or not obeying, as the case may be) men in "The Queen's Fool." With the rivalry, and sometimes love, between Henry's two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth as historical background, Gregory tells the story of Hannah Green, a Jewish refuge from the Spanish Inquisition who, after seeing her mother burned at the stake, flees with her father to England where he sets up shop as a bookseller. Hannah, who narrates the tale, has the gift of "sight", that is, she has visions that come unbidden and reveal the future to her. It is one of those visions that, early in the story, lands her in court during the short reign of Edward VI and, after his death, leaves her as a pawn batted back and forth between Mary and Elizabeth. Hannah has the ability to see the best in both and, as much as possible, is loyal to both, no mean feat given that each princess see herself as destined for the throne of England. To complicate matters, Hannah is betrothed to another Jewish refuge, who like her, must keep his ancestry a secret. She is torn between her desire for independence and her passion for her intended husband. How she eventually reconciles the two is the meat of the novel. Gregory's narrative is engrossing, her conversations engaging. Among her previous fourteen books is a trilogy that includes "Wideacre", "The Favored Child" and "Meridon." Dare we hope that she will follow "The Other Boleyn Girl" and "The Queen's Fool" with a third partner, focusing on Elizabeth?
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