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Fiction.
Literature.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:The first novel in the acclaimed Elizabethan Quartet: "Wonderfully juicy...Maxwell brings all of bloody Tudor England vividly to life." â??Publishers Weekly (starred review) One was queen for a thousand days; one for over forty years. Both were passionate, headstrong women, loved and hated by Henry VIII. Yet until the discovery of the secret diary, Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth I, had never really met . . . Anne was the second of Henry's six wives, doomed to be beloved, betrayed, and beheaded. When Henry fell madly in love with her upon her return from an education at the lascivious French court, he was already a married man. While his passion for Anne was great enough to rock the foundation of England and of all Christendom, in the end he forsook her for another love, schemed against her, and ultimately had her sentenced to death. But unbeknownst to the king, Anne had kept a diary. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, it is pressed into her hands. In reading it, the young queen discovers a great deal about her much-maligned mother: Anne's fierce determination, her hard-won knowledge about being a woman in a world ruled by despotic men, and her deep-seated love for the infant daughter taken from her shortly after her birth. In the journal's pages, Elizabeth finds an echo of her own dramatic life as a passionate young woman at the center of England's powerful male establishment, and with the knowledge gained from them, makes a resolution that will change the course of history . . . "Maxwell is one of the most popularâ??and one of the bestâ??historical novelists currently mining the rich vein of Tudor history." â??B… (more)
What to say about this book... That's a tough one. Let me start with mentioning that I'm not too familiar with the royal history of Britain. That's putting it mildly. So I won't comment on historical accuracy at all. I gave this book a 3-star rating because I liked it. It gave me a look into royal and upper class life in the periods of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth. The way people lived, morals, values, schemes, plotting, church. And it was an interesting look. When I started out, it was quite boring, and I didn't expect to finish it then. But the book got more interesting the more pages I read. All in all, a nice read. ( )
Great premise, lousy execution (sorry, bad pun). The author writes dialogue that attempts to move forward the plot while explaining British history. It reads as forced and unnatural. The infrequent interspersing of dated words such as"methinks," and "in deed" (not indeed) into contemporary language is jarring. In deed, methinks thou shouldst take a pass. ( )
Lots of politics of Anne's time as well as Elizabeth's time. Scary that there was so much manipulation and back stabbing that one needed to fear for their lives. ( )
WOW. I enjoyed this book even more than I did "The Other Boleyn Girl". I don't know if I've ever enjoyed a historical fiction novel more than I did this one. Everything was perfect: the language, just the right amount of sexiness, strong female characters... Anne Boleyn and her daughter Elizabeth I are just the way I imagined them to be. No, they're more than that. Robin Maxwell took these larger-than-life historical figures and made them real people. Real women. This book was so strong, and had such a strong ending, I think I'm going to read it again before I turn it ack into the library. Seriously, read this book. Put down your Phillipa Gregory and pick it up. You won't be sorry! ( )
Fiction.
Literature.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:The first novel in the acclaimed Elizabethan Quartet: "Wonderfully juicy...Maxwell brings all of bloody Tudor England vividly to life." â??Publishers Weekly (starred review) One was queen for a thousand days; one for over forty years. Both were passionate, headstrong women, loved and hated by Henry VIII. Yet until the discovery of the secret diary, Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth I, had never really met . . . Anne was the second of Henry's six wives, doomed to be beloved, betrayed, and beheaded. When Henry fell madly in love with her upon her return from an education at the lascivious French court, he was already a married man. While his passion for Anne was great enough to rock the foundation of England and of all Christendom, in the end he forsook her for another love, schemed against her, and ultimately had her sentenced to death. But unbeknownst to the king, Anne had kept a diary. At the beginning of Elizabeth's reign, it is pressed into her hands. In reading it, the young queen discovers a great deal about her much-maligned mother: Anne's fierce determination, her hard-won knowledge about being a woman in a world ruled by despotic men, and her deep-seated love for the infant daughter taken from her shortly after her birth. In the journal's pages, Elizabeth finds an echo of her own dramatic life as a passionate young woman at the center of England's powerful male establishment, and with the knowledge gained from them, makes a resolution that will change the course of history . . . "Maxwell is one of the most popularâ??and one of the bestâ??historical novelists currently mining the rich vein of Tudor history." â??B
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Book description
In this "energetic" recreation of Anne Boleyn's tragic life - and death - Robin Maxwell offers a pitch-perfect version of a bawdy and exuberant time filled with lust, betrayal, love, and murder. When the young Queen Elizabeth I is entrusted with Anne Boleyn's secret diary, she discovers a great deal about the much-maligned mother she never knew. And on learning the truth about her lascivious and despotic father, Henry VIII, she vows never to relinquish control to any man. But this avowal doesn't prevent Elizabeth from pursuing a torrid love affair with her horsemaster, Robin Dudley - described with near-shocking candor -as too are Anne's graphic trysts with a very persistent and lustful Henry. Blending a historian's attention to accuracy with a novelist's artful rendering, Maxwell weaves compelling description our court life and devastating portraits of actual people into her naughty, page-turning tale. The result is a masterpiece of historical fiction - so prophetic of our time that one would think it ere ripped from today's headlines. (0-684-84969-0)
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I gave this book a 3-star rating because I liked it. It gave me a look into royal and upper class life in the periods of Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth. The way people lived, morals, values, schemes, plotting, church. And it was an interesting look.
When I started out, it was quite boring, and I didn't expect to finish it then. But the book got more interesting the more pages I read.
All in all, a nice read. (