I had a slightly harder time reading this book than I did with The Other Boleyn Girl. The way the chapters were structured, going from Anne to Jane to Katherine, was kind of hard to get used to. But really, for the way the story was told, it’s the only way to do it, because you don’t want to be reading the same events over and over again.
Philippa Gregory states in the Author’s Note at the end of the book, “In this fictional account of the real facts I have tried to get past the convention that one wife was ugly and the other stupid…” I only agree with half this statement – she did a good job of conveying that Anne of Cleves was not an ugly woman by any real accounts, more like she was used to different ways and as a result, her way of dressing and manners made her seem ugly.
However, the attempts at making Katherine Howard seem like she wasn’t stupid kind of fell flat for me – Katherine maybe didn’t seem stupid outright, but certainly not very smart and lacking in common sense, and above all, shallow beyond belief. Towards the end of the book I did feel some sympathy for Katherine, but leading up to that I mostly though “Man, I’d consider beheading your conceited self too!” I had read a bit about Katherine before reading this book, but it never really occurred to me just how young she actually was. Women were married off at such a young age in those days, but it really was unfair to expect that she would be a good queen, especially given her predisposition to flirt and take/ask for whatever she could get. She was a vain little girl, but I don’t really think her behavior actually warranted her fate.
I really loved the way Anne really seemed to come to life and into herself as the book progressed. She seems like an early feminist, having the courage to stick to what she believed when it was most dangerous for her. It’s also interesting to have some insight into her, even though it’s all fictionalized, but to get an idea of what she was like was thrilling for me. It’s remarkable that given the circumstances, she somehow managed to avoid losing her life as a result of her marriage to Henry VIII.
I did have some issues with the way Jane Boleyn/Rochford was portrayed. One of the big things was that once again, Philippa Gregory seems to take this one little very unlikely thing and just state it as fact – in this case that Jane and George Boleyn had a son. There is a lot of doubt in the historical community that they ever did, and in The Other Boleyn Girl, it seemed like George never wanted anything to do with Jane. It just seems difficult to believe, given their bad marriage and dislike of each other from the start, that they really did have a child. I didn’t see the point in mentioning this several times in the book.
The twist of Jane maybe not actually being what they considered mad in those days, that she was faking it, was an interesting idea as well. In the Author’s Note, she says she hopes to show that Jane was never wholely sane, but I think this is a difficult thing to say. Although I really have no sympathy for Jane overall, she was put in a difficult position early on…what would one really do when faced with the aspect of saving their own life even at the expense of their husband? In that day and age, the promise of her life coupled with getting the Boleyn fortunes was undoubtedly very tempting. Up until the point where she gave evidence against Anne Boleyn and George, she really hadn’t seemed to do anything wrong – she was a wife unloved by her husband, in a forced marriage, and dealing daily with the bond between brother and sister. It’s hard to say if her decisions were madness or simply a survival instinct.
For me, there were no real surprises about the ends of any of these women, I knew it all already. I would like to see Philippa Gregory write some more about Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk, because he seems such an interesting character. Can you imagine being linked so closely by relation to so many people who met their end on Henry VIII’s block, yet managing to escape every time? I’d love more exploration into what brought about such a lucky position for this man.
Overall, a good read, but I am a little glad to be done with her books that have “Boleyn” in the title. My boyfriend is starting to call me “Boleyn”…hopefully he doesn’t have any murderous tendencies himself 
