The Boleyn Inheritance (Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #10)

by Philippa Gregory

An only survivor of the ambitious Boleyn family, lady-in-waiting Jane Boleyn testifies against Henry VIII's latest queen, Anne of Cleves, and conspires to place her young cousin, Katherine Howard, on the throne.

• ISBN10: 074327251X
• ISBN13: 9780743272513
• Publish Date: 7 August 2007 (first published 1 January 2006)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Atria Books
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 544
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

Where I loved The Constant Princess, it took me a little while to get into The Boleyn Inheritance. Part of my problem with this was the separation of narrative - I was immediately drawn to three different characters, none of whom I found immediately interesting. It was not until about halfway through the book, after Kitty Howard was already on the throne, that I began to care in the least about Anne of Cleves, whose fight to survive entrapped me, and I knew already Kitty's fate (even though I have not thoroughly studied the Tudor dynasty, there was really only one end which Kitty could have met).

Gregory admits that she has taken certain liberties with the narrative of all three women - instead of presenting Anne as "ugly", Kitty as "stupid", and Jane as "evil," she has allowed all three of them speculative, complex backstories. History has a habit of laying out people in the plainest, briefest way imaginable - good historical fiction takes those cold, hard facts and builds the complexity that is a human being around them, and that dance is one whose steps Gregory has mastered.

I think that the flow in this novel was not as masterful as her previous ones, because the first half of the book moved incredibly slowly. I understand that Gregory's aim was to make this story about the "inheritance" and not about the queens themselves, but even them I feel as though those book could have been two. Nonetheless, Gregroy did a fantastic job creating sympathetic characters out of those who have been stereotyped and have little definitive fact known about them. For me, it is the characters that mean the most, and I believe that Gregory did an honor to three women who have had only dishonor shown to them. After all... all the people who know the REAL truth about any of these ladies is long dead....

I give her three stars, only because the first 200 pages were a struggle for me to get through. It's still good historical fiction, but it isn't comparable to some of her other works.

((Cross-posted to my blog: The Literary Phoenix))

[ibeforem]

Loved this. I listened to it on audio, and this is one of those cases where the audio production really enhances the story. A different actress was used for each woman, and they all did a phenomenal job. You could hear Anne’s hope, and then her fear. You could hear Katherine’s greed and sly naivety. And the disdain that pours from Jane is palpable. I was familiar with Anne and Katherine’s story, but not so much with Jane, and she was really the glue that holds this story together. She fancies herself her uncle’s equal when it comes to navigating the politics of court, but realizes way too late that she is as much of a pawn as young Katherine was. Katherine isn’t a particularly likeable girl, but it’s hard not to feel sorry for her, since she didn’t have the intelligence to realize what was happening to her. She really was just a child. My favorite here was Anne, who really shines by the story’s end. Delivering the story through the points of view of only these ladies really sells it. This was my first Philippa Gregory, and it definitely won’t be my last.