The Other Boleyn Girl
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4.4 • 119 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
This chance for us Howards comes once in a century…
1521. Henry VIII rules over a fashionable court alive with pageant and celebration, the lack of a son his only threat. When young Mary Boleyn arrives at court, she becomes his new mistress, an unwitting pawn in the ambitions of the powerful Boleyn and Howard families.
As Henry’s interest begins to wane, the Boleyns scheme to put forward Mary’s sister, Anne. Yet Anne Boleyn, newly returned from the French court, won’t agree to be Henry’s mistress – only his wife.
Pitting the king’s desperation for an heir against the advice of his powerful advisors, Wolsey and Cromwell, what follows will change the course of a country’s history.
Reviews
Praise for Philppa Gregory:
‘One of Gregory's great strengths as a novelist is her ability to take familiar historical figures and flesh them into living breathing human beings’ Daily Express
‘The contemporary mistress of historical fiction is Philippa Gregory. Her novels are filled with strong, determined women who take their fate into their own hands…Gregory brings to life the sights, smells and textures of 16th-century England.’ Kate Mosse
‘Gregory's research is impeccable which makes her imaginative fiction all the more convincing’ Daily Mail
‘Gregory is great at conjuring a Tudor film-set of gorgeous gowns and golden-lattered dining. She invokes some swoonsome images…while the politics are personal enough to remain pertinent’ DailyTelegraph
‘Subtle and exciting’ Daily Express
‘Written from instinct, not out of calculation, and it shows’
Peter Ackroyd, The Times
‘For sheer pace and percussive drama it will take a lot of beating’ Sunday Times
About the author
Philippa Gregory is a historian and novelist renowned for combining rich research with powerful storytelling. Through her writing, she reveals the women history tried to forget – and whose stories are more relevant today than ever. Her novels have sold millions of copies worldwide and been adapted for stage, television and film.
In 2023 she published her critically acclaimed non-fiction book Normal Women, a new social history of women in England for 900 years. It has also been adapted as a podcast, teen edition and children's edition.
In 2021 Philippa Gregory was awarded a CBE for services to literature and charity.
www.philippagregory.com
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sisterly rivalry is the basis of this fresh, wonderfully vivid retelling of the story of Anne Boleyn. Anne, her sister Mary and their brother George are all brought to the king's court at a young age, as players in their uncle's plans to advance the family's fortunes. Mary, the sweet, blond sister, wins King Henry VIII's favor when she is barely 14 and already married to one of his courtiers. Their affair lasts several years, and she gives Henry a daughter and a son. But her dark, clever, scheming sister, Anne, insinuates herself into Henry's graces, styling herself as his adviser and confidant. Soon she displaces Mary as his lover and begins her machinations to rid him of his wife, Katherine of Aragon. This is only the beginning of the intrigue that Gregory so handily chronicles, capturing beautifully the mingled hate and nearly incestuous love Anne, Mary and George ("kin and enemies all at once") feel for each other and the toll their family's ambition takes on them. Mary, the story's narrator, is the most sympathetic of the siblings, but even she is twisted by the demands of power and status; charming George, an able plotter, finally brings disaster on his own head by falling in love with a male courtier. Anne, most tormented of all, is ruthless in her drive to become queen, and then to give Henry a male heir. Rather than settling for a picturesque rendering of court life, Gregory conveys its claustrophobic, all-consuming nature with consummate skill. In the end, Anne's famous, tragic end is offset by Mary's happier fate, but the self-defeating folly of the quest for power lingers longest in the reader's mind.
Customer Reviews
Amazing research!
Engrossing
Favorite Author
I love all of Phillips’s books and have read this series numerous times. I love the depth of the characters and the facts from history.
The Other Boylen Girl
I was on holidays in the Greek Islands…a formidable distraction from reading…but it was so good I could hardly put it down. And I learnt a lot about the politics and history of the era at the same time.