The Other Boleyn Girl (Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #9)

by Philippa Gregory

Fabulous historical novel set in the court of King Henry VIII. Mary Boleyn attracts the attention of the young king and becomes his mistress; when he tires of her, she sets out to school her sister, Anne, as a replacement.

Politics and passion are inextricably bound together in this compelling drama. The Boleyn family is keen to rise through the ranks of society, and what better way to attract the attention of the most powerful in the land than to place their most beautiful young woman at court? But Mary becomes the king’s mistress at a time of change. He needs his personal pleasures, but he also needs an heir.

The unthinkable happens and the course of English history is irrevocably changed. For the women at the heart of the storm, they have only one weapon; and when it’s no longer enough to be the mistress, Mary must groom her younger sister in the ways of the king. What happens next is common knowedge – but here it is told in a way we’ve never heard it before, with all of Philippa Gregory’s characteristic perceptiveness, backed by meticulous research and superb storytelling skills.

• ISBN10: 0002259842
• ISBN13: 9780002259842
• Publish Date: 5 November 2001
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 22 October 2002
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 544
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[moraa]

3.5 stars
Loved it.
Learned a lot of trivia at the tender age of 16.

[littleread1]

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I am glad I have read it however, vastly different from my usual. I just do not enjoy politics, no matter the century or country. I am pleased that Mary at least grew up to no longer be used. Spoiler alert - Anne dies at the end ;-)

Miss Gregory did a wonderful job making me both hate Anne and pity her, sometimes in the same breath. Very impressive. But my favorite character of all was George. 3

[layawaydragon]

I tried reading this years ago when it blew up. I couldn't be bothered to care. I found it really dull and couldn't keep the players straight. Probably because I couldn't careless about it. I'd forgotten all about it until I read and reviewed her Changeling novel and was like "Ohhhh that author."

Clearly not the book for me. Oh well. Changeling worked out better at least. It was completely different.

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

The fact that this story is told from Mary's point-of-view, and not from Anne's, makes all the difference in the world. In the tellings of the Tudorian Court, it is easy to fall into the tangle of sex, intrigue, and sin. Mary is an outlier to that world, and when she is pushed into it, she remains uncorrupted by their games. She does what she does with all the honesty she can muster, with her whole heart. Mary is not blameless - she cuckolded her husband, after all - but in a Gammorah, she comes out rather clean, which is how Gregory's story manages to retain an intriguing plot line and not fall away into endless scene of sexual endeavors. If the story had been written from Anne's point-of-view, this would be a much, much different tale.

As far as the writing goes, the story is compelling, even for the daunting size of the novel, and the characters are varied just enough that you can love or hate them all respectively, but they are complicated. You cannot really hate Anne, not to the core, when you see her through Mary's eyes, and Gregory does a marvelous job of building sympathy for event he worst of the characters.

Overall, a good enough read that I've now read it twice and enjoyed it equally both times, This second time, I indulged in the audiobook read by Susan Lyons (this is the unabridged one... I cannot abide abridged books. WHY.) and I thought she did a fantastic job of bringing all the characters to life, but Mary in particular. Well done.

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Like Elizabeth Taylor's husbands, a percentage of people can rattle off most of Henry VIII wives and like Richard Burton, Anne Boleyn is always among them. But what of her sister Mary, the King's first choice, the other Boleyn girl?

The Other Boleyn Girl writes like an autobiography, through the eyes of an innocent young girl who is played like a pawn and does what she is told. Mary comes to court when she is just 14 and very naive of the ways of the world. Soon after her appearance at court she catches the eye of the King and the Boleyn family pounces on the chance to raise their fortunes. We shadow Mary into the royal bedroom both as his lover and then as sister-in-law and learn of the conniving, backstabbing that takes place behind the curtain. It is the soap opera of the 1500s.

Gregory's work of historical fiction is soaked in detail as rich as the dresses Mary wore herself, from the descriptions of dress and scenery to the period itself. The magic about this book is that the reader knows going in that Anne will die (he still has 5 more to go) but the question is how? Yet somehow, despite this fact the author still has the reader hanging on every word.

Knowing nothing about the Tudors (or almost nothing) this book was very interesting to me and made me want to dig a little deeper into that period of time; that is one thing about historical fiction, if the story is good enough I want to learn more on the subject, separate fact from fiction so to speak. The Other Boleyn Girl kept me up late at night (10:01) and would highly recommend it.

[elysium]

Never read her books before and I was totally hooked. I think she made Anne too mean but I still loved it.