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Philippa Gregory: The Other Boleyn Girl

T

TheOtrBoleynGrl

New Member
As you can probably tell from my screenname, I love this book. I think it was really good because it was a historical, which I love, and also because it's about the untold story of Mary Boleyn.

Has anyone else read this book?
 
Yeah, I just finished reading it, and I was blown away, it was awesome! I think everyone knows the story about Anne Boleyn (which is actually one of my friends names which is really cool) but I honestly had no idea about her past or anything about how she got to be the "Queen" of England, even though I had learned about her in school and read other books about her. It was really interesting to hear the story from Mary's perspective and learn about her life. Have you read the newest book by her (I can't remember the author's name), its called The Queen's Fool this book is cool because in my mind if there was a sequal to The Other Boleyn Girl, this would be it. It is about Queen Katherine's daughter (Queen Mary) and "Queen" Anne's daughter (Queen Elizabeth), told through the eyes of a fictional character (Hannah Green/Verde). It was really interesting and if you liked The Other Boleyn Girl than you will like this but, The Other Boleyn Girl is better. Out of curiosity, do you think the way things actually happened, should have happened the way they did (in the book or actuality, with Queen Katherine, Anne and Mary)? What do you think about the whole idea of George and all the other courtiers having sex with Anne? And the whoreness of being a female in the court of England when Henry was king?
Lets just say I am so happy to live now instead of then!
 
This is a book I keep meaning to read. I've seen the tv adaptation and it was really good, though I'm not sure how historically accurate it was. Made for a good story though. The way Mary was trapped in a hopeless situation and yet when she was given an escape by the scheming of her sister, she just felt betrayed and didn't want it. And then the depths Anne would go to to save her own life. Quite yukky.
 
the other boleyn girl

well after a very loooooooooooooonnnggg dry spell, i finally feel back in the game. i just finished the other boleyn girl and i read it as fast as a thirsty person would throw back a glass of cold water. i love philippa gregory's writing. unlike margaret george, you just fly through the chapters and never feel bogged down with descriptions. you can feel frustrated with the main character, mary, and the next page feel such sympathy for this girl who is so used by those around her. with the fate of her more famous sister anne unfolding, and regardless of the hatred we might feel for anne who is so driven for power, mary's sorrow moves you.
i enjoyed the end notes on how gregory went about her research and how she kept all the events of henry the vii's court in order. these people never sat still. the tudor family tree alone is like big city road map.
historical fiction really does it for me. i love the idea of seeing these characters from our highschool text books that were so one dimensional and dull, come alive. i highly recommend this book and will definitley look for her other books.

jenn
 
I just devoured The Queen's Fool the day before last (after I read Wuthering Heights, if you saw me in the sucky classics thread). Jenn, you must read this book as well!

To take a relatively unknown, or possible insignificant character, like Mary Boleyn, and make a novel about her is very intriguing if the writing is good. And that was an incredible book (The Other Boleyn Girl), but I thought The Queen's Fool was even better.

The main character is a girl whose family fled Spain to England because of thier Jewish heritage, and are nominally Christians, but still attached to thier Jewish faith moreover, as much as they can be. She begins a career then as a jester or fool in the court of Edward VI, Henry the VIII's son.

Without any spoilers outside of just mainstream English and religious history, this was a damned brilliant idea IMHO. What better backdrop to all of the inter Christian denominations religious/royal strife than a young Jewish girl hiding her heritage? The distanced insights and loyalties that sprang up were very surprising to me, and it could never have been as good from the perspective of say, a Lutheran, or an Anglican or a Roman Catholic. This one is fairly historically accurate too, in the travels and such that occurred and other events of importance.

A totally great read!

I can't wait to get my hands on The Virgin's Lover.
 
i will definitely get it then. i was going to get wideacre(?) next but i will go with that instead.

have you ever read the josephine trilogy by sandra gulland? they are soooooooooo good.
 
Hated it

I hated the Other Boleyn Girl. I found it painful to read and the characters completely unlikable. I do realize that some of them were supposed to be unlikable - but my gawd! At first I thought it must just be because I have a bit of an attachment to the time period and the characters involved, but geez. I just wanted to scream at all the characters to ‘Get a Life.’ I’m glad other folks liked it, and I would be really interested to hear why – because I just didn’t get it.
 
josephine trilogy

Now, this one I loved. The writing and character development was fantastic and I found how everything unravelled to be wonderfully done. I coulnd't put any of them down! This is one I am always recommending to people.
 
I also adore Philipa Gregory. I loved the Other Boleyn Girl and the Queens Fool. The Virgin's Lover ,I found wasn't quite so good.
Not long to wait for her new book though, Nov 2005, about the early life of Katherine of Aragon. :D
 
I am a PG fan all the way...The first one I read was TOBG and I fell in love...I agree with you Jenn when you said that you don't feel bogged down reading this book...when I read The Autobiography of Henry the VIII by Margaret George there was plenty of times when I did feel bogged...anyways If you haven't read the Wideacre books I recommend them. I will say this about Wideacre though the main character is really sick and some parts of the book had me recoil in disgust...Another novel by PG is called The Wise Woman. If you haven't read this one I suggest you do so. I cry every time at the end of that book. Other than that I am anxiously awaiting for the release of The Constant Princess which I have already pre-ordered from Barnes & Nobles.
 
My best friend insisted I read this and even sent her copy to me. I thought it was slow and was tempted to stop reading but I was told it got better and it did-once the action heated up I couldn't put it down. I also read The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover ; I wasn't that impressed with Lover, though.
 
bluecaffeine said:
I'm reading the Queen's Fool now. I'm really enjoying it. I'll have to backtrack to The Other Boleyn Girl next :)
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I just finished The Queen's Fool actually, and really loved it. I have heard that Gregory's standard falls a bit in The Virgin's Lover, though, so I don't think that I'll read it straight away. The Other Boleyn Girl is really great, probably my favourite of the two that I have read. I love reading Gregory because she always puts a twist on popular views, such as making both Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth nasty and coniving people. I have never encountered them this way, and so it was very interesting and refreshing. I look forward to starting The Constant Princess, which I purchased the other day.
 
I have The Other Boleyn Girl on loan from the library at the moment, but I am reluctant to read it and I am leaving it till I have read all the other books I have on loan, so I probable will not get around to it.

There are two reasons that I am reluctant to start it. 1) I read a lot about the Tudors years ago and feel that this book may not add anything new, and so I will be disappointed. 2) I have only read one other book by Philippa Gregory, which I really did not enjoy. It was called Earthly Joys.

Was I just unlucky in my choice of book by Philippa Gregory? Has anyone else a view on Earthly Joys?

I would really like to be convinced that I should read The Other Boleyn Girl, and more books by this author since so many others seem to enjoy her work. :confused:
 
Not yet, I actually didn't even know it was out. But it looks interesting. I have read Queen's Fool and Other Boylen I liked both of them but they did go by very slowly. It seemed that there were pages of nothingness. I find it interesting that Gregory's focus is on the Tudor women. I think it would be interesting if she wrote a novel from Henry's point of view since she has written about two of his wives and one of his kids. I find her historical fiction's fascinating and can't help but wonder how far from the truth some of the thoughts of her characters are.
 
Balmy Westwind said:
I have The Other Boleyn Girl on loan from the library at the moment, but I am reluctant to read it and I am leaving it till I have read all the other books I have on loan, so I probable will not get around to it.

There are two reasons that I am reluctant to start it. 1) I read a lot about the Tudors years ago and feel that this book may not add anything new, and so I will be disappointed. 2) I have only read one other book by Philippa Gregory, which I really did not enjoy. It was called Earthly Joys.

Was I just unlucky in my choice of book by Philippa Gregory? Has anyone else a view on Earthly Joys?

I would really like to be convinced that I should read The Other Boleyn Girl, and more books by this author since so many others seem to enjoy her work. :confused:
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You really should read The Other Boleyn Girl - it's absolutely brilliant. I haven't read Earthy Joys myself, but I have heard that her Tudor series is much better. Try it and let us know what you think!
 
h_carnahan said:
Not yet, I actually didn't even know it was out. But it looks interesting. I have read Queen's Fool and Other Boylen I liked both of them but they did go by very slowly. It seemed that there were pages of nothingness. I find it interesting that Gregory's focus is on the Tudor women. I think it would be interesting if she wrote a novel from Henry's point of view since she has written about two of his wives and one of his kids. I find her historical fiction's fascinating and can't help but wonder how far from the truth some of the thoughts of her characters are.
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I agree they were slow in places, but it's fairly easy to skip the dull parts. I agree it might be interesting if she told a story from Henry's point of view, but I'm not sure I'd care to read about a man. The English kings have had lots written about them, I'm more interested in the women.

I wonder too how far from the truth the thoughts of the characters are-in the case of Other Boleyn I was shocked that the baby Anne had might have been her brother's. I'd never heard that allegation before although I did read one or two rumors that she practiced witchcraft which I thought was preposterous, since in that day and age any woman who did anything unusual was considered a witch. Mostly I was struck by how far we've come-after all, nowadays we know that women aren't responsible for the sex of a baby, and I wonder what those women throughout history who were castigated, divorced, etc. because they produced daughters-how different history might have been if they knew that back then!
 
I have been looking for TOB in the library for ages! I hope I find it soon, I don't wanna spend the money on this book. Since I'm broke anyway...:(
 
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