If my World History teachers would have found textbooks that were half as engaging as The Other Boleyn Girl, I would have aced he subject. Phillipa Gregory does a fantastic job of taking a very complex and potentially confusing period in Britain's history and completely sucking the reader in. I've never been able to follow the Tudor line until now, and it's because for the first time I can see them as people (or characters) instead of just names across a page. If only textbook writers could make history this compelling....
The novel follows Mary Boleyn, Queen Anne's younger sister, who at the age of about fourteen becomes King Henry VIII's second mistress. Although she is married already, her family (sister Anne included, as well as brother George) schemes to make her the king's favorite in hopes that she will provide him with the male heir that his wife, Katherine, has failed to do. Mary has two children, but when they are stripped from her, she falls out of love with king and court, leaving the opening for Anne, the more ambitious of the two, to step in. Obviously, Anne wins the king and displaces Katherine as queen.
The characterizations of the principals were beautifully done. The Boleyn sisters, Mary and Anne, remained sympathetic throughout the novel despite their wavering between petty courtier machinations and their desires for deeper meaning in their lives. I was never able to see Anne Boleyn as more than a conniving b***h, who stole the queenship, and she mostly was, but Gregory gives her some real heart and emotion. Anne experiences real love at one point and it is stolen from her because of her gender, her inability to decide her own destiny. Who wouldn't become a harpy after that? Mary is little more than a pawn for the majority of the novel, but manages to rise above the intrigue of the court at last in sharp contrast to her sister.
King Henry is given depth as well. Instead of just a fat, gluttonous tyrant, Gregory shows glimpses of him as a doting husband and father to his legitimate wife. Although he did have his mistresses, he did have a very high regard for Katherine, and even for Anne until she overstepped her bounds. He is a classic example of how 'absolute power corrupts absolutely.'
I listened to the audio of The Other Boleyn Girl and Ruthie Henshall's narration was lovely to hear. She kept the characters distinct and moved the story along as well as any bard of old.
I give this novel 4.75 out of 5 stars and recommend it as a great summer read.
