The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

 I first published this review on July 8, 2010

I listened to this book while traveling and it is a perfect example of reading a book that causes you to do research!  I have had such an interesting time - and so much fun - researching the Boleyn's, The House of Tudor, Katherine of Aragon and King Henry VIII.

Mary Boleyn was the sister of Anne Boleyn the famous queen who was beheaded by her husband King Henry. Gregory writes this as fiction. She takes all of her research and adds what I call the "personality" of the book.

Reviews have been mixed but in reading many of them I have found  there are very few faults with Gregory's writing or the story - the fault lies within the historical accuracy which is often questionable because although much has been written about Queen Anne, there hasn't been much written about the other Boleyn girl, Mary. 

 

Mary Boleyn had an affair with King Henry while he was  still married to his first wife Katherine of Aragon. Mary was considered  -  by legend  - the more beautiful of the two Boleyn girls.  Gregory shows in her book how families manipulated  their  children  to  gain  more.  More for the family  -  financially and in status. Children were their political insurance.

Anne's rise to the hierarchy, her reign and subsequent death has been studied, written about, and movies made. I see this book as looking at the same "story" the same life, the same history we've known but from a different perspective. That of Anne's sister, Mary.

The rivalry, the jealousy - yet the love between two sisters is common even today. As we read in Ecclesiastes "there is nothing new under the sun."

     

Mary was given as a bride at the age of 12. Her affair with the King began when she was only 14 and was greatly orchestrated by her family - as Gregory tells it.

I greatly enjoyed it and I especially enjoyed listening to it on Audio. One of my favorite Broadway actresses, Ruthie Henshall read it and she did a fantastic job. Ruthie Henshall also reads  The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory and The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. 

   

Gregory has written 2 sequels to The Other Boleyn Girl. The next is The Queen's Fool about King Henry VIII's daughter Queen Mary and is followed by The Virgin's Lover set during the early days of  Queen Elizabeth's reign.

    

Interestingly, the Sunday after I finished this book, we were studying  Genesis in Sunday School and we were in the chapters talking of Jacob, Leah and Rachel. So much of the philosophy of marriage and possessions in Genesis are seen in the Reign of Kings and Queens in the 1500's.  Their obsession with having sons is so similar. I found myself able to recognize similar attitudes with both time periods.

"There is nothing new under the sun..."