Mistress Anne: The Exceptional Life of Anne Boleyn

The extraordinary life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, has long captured imaginations. Is she a seductress who steals the King's heart away from Queen Katherine or is she unwittingly tangled in the intrigues and passions of the 16th century English court?

Carolly Erikson does a fine job of pulling together what historical evidence about Anne exists and paints a historically accurate picture of life in King Henry VIII's court. However she seems too often to use such statements as "It cannot be known for sure what Anne was feeling during the month of her confinement," or "While no writings exist today, we can guess that the King was frustrated with Anne's haughty behavior..." little actual evidence survives, so Erikson show more relies heavily upon legend and hearsay.

Overall, I'd recommend this book for a great in-depth introduction to what we know about the ill-fated Queen, who waited for almost a decade to marry the King, only to be wrongly convicted of adultery and treason, and beheaded at the Tower of London two years into the royal marriage. show less

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as two other books from this author. Not much is known about Anne herself, her thoughts, and the like. There's a lot of history in here, such as about the French court in young Anne's time, or Henry's divorce with Katherine, or secondhand accounts. So honestly, compared to this entire book, the content of which is about Anne is not that much, which was disappointing, because if Ms. Erickson was going to talk about other aspects of Anne's environment rather than Anne herself, then she should have ALSO included more about Anne herself. She speculates about how Anne must have felt, or such, but since Anne Boleyn did not leave behind a diary or such, it's impossible to really know her feelings and show more motivations.

It's a fairly decent read, but not much more. You might enjoy it if you don't know much about Anne Boleyn. Note that this title was published in 1984, and more info about Anne has come to light since then. show less

How this book made the Best of list in 1984 is beyond my comprehension. The writing is terrible, the information jumps from one person to another (many intertwining stories), part of this reads as non-fiction the rest as bad fiction (and you really never know which is which), and there is too much information that I believe was unnecessary.

Chapter Four: Page 45: "Never mind that, after several years, there was no conclusion in sight, or that her young charms were withering with every passing month." Give me a break! It was 1522 and the Boleyn was approximately 15-17 years of age.

The end of Chapter Six & beginning of Seven reads like an over emotional romance novel..... QUOTE:

Six: Page 75: "She was his elixir of hope. The jumbled show more fragments of of his disordered life fell into place once again around her.

Six: Page 75: "The new enchantments of love drove out the old sorceries that enchained Henry, putting him forever in his beloved's debt, and putting her Forever (?), in the lists of his loves and mistresses, in a class by herself."

Seven: Page 78: "The King was giddy with love. He thirsted for the sight of his beloved Anne, he longed for her as he had never longed for any woman....."

I'll tell you for someone who was touted as: "......one of America's foremost young historians, she has also been called 'a queen of storytellers'......" when writing non-fiction biographies she needed to put her fanciful imagination aside.

The first book I ever read by her was: "Last Wife of Henry VIII", which I gave three stars. Obviously her writing has improved.... show less