Product Description

Fabulous historical novel set in the court of King Henry VIII. Mary Boleyn attracts the attention of the young king and becomes his mistress; when he tires of her, she sets out to school her sister, Anne, as a replacement. Politics and passion are inextricably bound together in this compelling drama. The Boleyn family is keen to rise through the ranks of society, and what better way to attract the attention of the most powerful in the land than to place their most beautiful young woman at court? But Mary becomes the king's mistress at a time of change. He needs his personal pleasures, but he also needs an heir. The unthinkable happens and the course of English history is irrevocably changed. For the women at the heart of the storm, they have only one weapon; and when it's no longer enough to be the mistress, Mary must groom her younger sister in the ways of the king. What happens next is common knowledge -- but here it is told in a way we've never heard it before, with all of Philippa Gregory's characteristic perceptiveness, backed by meticulous research and superb storytelling skills.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3093 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-07
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Everyone knows the fate of Anne Boleyn, but not many know the story of her rise to majesty and the part played by her rival and sister, Mary, who was Henry's mistress and mother to two of his bastard children before the dazzling older Boleyn girl even caught his eye. Philippa Gregory, whose own role as the Queen of historical romance grows more secure with each new novel, has surpassed her self with this epic tale of lust, jealousy and betrayal. The Other Boleyn Girl charts the lives of both Boleyns--each in their turn "the other Boleyn Girl"--and their fiercely ambitious, conniving family who used the girls as pawns to advance their own positions at the court of Henry VIII. At 13, Mary is little more than a child when she is presented to Henry, ordered by her scheming family to serve her King and country by opening her legs whenever commanded, or doing anything else the great monarch desires. And while his loins are satisfied, life at court is sweet for the unofficial Queen and her pushy coterie. Inevitably though, the King's eyes soon begin to wander and Mary is overlooked, helpless to do anything but aid her family's plot to advance their fortunes, replace her with Anne and give Henry the greatest gift of all: a son and heir.

So good a job has Ms Gregory done at portraying the Boleyns and Howards as selfish, scheming, treacherous manipulators however, that it becomes increasingly hard to feel empathy for any of them. While Mary is merely hapless, Anne is the most ruthless of them all, so that instead of feeling cheated by knowing the outcome of her story, it only serves to help digest her unpalatable rise. Such a gruesome destiny was never more deserved. Ms Gregory has worked hard at researching her historical references. Daily life at court is described in fascinating detail--from the relentless leisure pursuits, masques and banquets laid on for the easily bored King to the complex hierarchies and machinations of the courtiers. However, the fall of Queen Katherine of Aragon and her only child, the Princess Mary, and the politics of the competing European courts and the break with Rome are seen only as a backdrop to the bawdy goings-on of the Boleyns and their fateful race for the crown. --Carey Green

Review
'When it comes to writers of historical fiction, Philippa Gregory is in the very top league' DAILY MAIL 'It is a credit to Gregory that she is able to sustain interest in an epic-length tale when the ending is one of the most well-known moments in english history. The very believable dialogue and detail take you all the way into the claustrophobic privy chambers of the royal palaces!Gregory has launched herself into a popular period and produced something with that most underrated of virtues: readability.' THE TIMES 'Philippa Gregory's books are always a good read' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH 'This is an intelligent variation on a familiar tale [with] witty use of metaphor' TLS Praise for EARTHLY JOYS 'Brilliantly true to the period! I was entranced' Lisa Jardine, Times Praise for VIRGIN EARTH 'A gripping story' Mail on Sunday 'Exciting and fascinating' Sunday Telegraph

From the Publisher
From the author PHILIPA GREGORY I knew I wanted to write a novel set in the Tudor period and I was reading around in various history books when I came across a reference to Henry VIII launching a ship called the Mary Boleyn. I first thought the author must have made a mistake, I knew of the ship the Mary Rose, of course, and I knew the name Anne Boleyn, but I had not remembered her sister Mary, and I could not think why a girl from a relatively minor family at court should be so honoured. I started a programme of research which slowly pieced together one of the most compelling and complicated stories of love and betrayal, sex and family. Mary Boleyn was the youngest daughter of the Boleyn family, her older sister was Anne and her brother was the family's only son and heir. The Boleyns, like all the Tudor families were making their way upward in the world by the King's patronage and favour. Therefore their son was groomed to be his friend and was one of the young King's companions at court. When Mary was 14 years old she was brought to court as lady in waiting to Katherine of Aragon, and married to another of the King's friends, William Stafford. However she soon took the eye of the King and became his mistress. Her sister Anne joined her at court, and the entire family managed and encouraged Mary's relationship with the King which immediately brought them grants of lands, wealth, and position. Mary had two children by the King, the first a girl she named Catherine, and the second the son and heir that Henry would want so desperately later in life. They called him Henry and he took the surname of Mary's husband Stafford. However, while Mary was in the long six weeks of childbed it was always the King's habit to take another mistress and this time he took a liking to Anne. Unlike her sister, and unlike any woman before, Anne refused to become his mistress but retained his interest. For an unbelievable six long years Anne kept the most powerful man in England in love with her but did not become his lover. As we all know, she thus forced him to propose marriage, to put aside a faultless and loyal Queen, to destroy the unity of the Roman Catholic Church, and to make a martyr of one of England's greatest philosophers: Sir Thomas More. In my novel I show the Boleyns supporting Anne through this long waiting period and Mary, once the informal Queen of the court pushed back into the role of Anne's lady in waiting. In my novel Mary and George come to serve their sister and tolerate her bad moods and sweeten her as best they can while the King is slowly more and more entrapped.

Mary's own life changes. She has two children to bring up and her husband dies of sweating fever. She falls in love, simply and without calculation, with a poor man in her uncle's service. She becomes his wife in secret, against all common sense and worldly ambition, and it is this passion of hers which really gave me a key to her character. She must have been a woman of extraordinary determination and desire, to turn her back on her family's ambition and pride and marry instead for love. Of all the letters she must have written in her life, by luck, the only one we have is her defending her decision to the king's Secretary Cromwell. She writes: "Well might I have had a greater man of birth and higher, but I ensure you I could never have had one that should a loved me so well nor a more honest man." (and in a powerful dig at her sister) "I had rather beg my bread with him than be the greatest Queen crowned."

Extraordinarily, though the Anne Boleyn story ends in accusations of witchcraft, incest, treason and execution for Anne and for her brother George who was accused of incest with her, Mary's story ends happily and the girl who married for love inherits the entire Boleyn fortune and goes on to be a beloved wife and a great landowner whose children would be powerful politicians and courtiers at the court of their cousin, another unlikely lucky girl - Elizabeth.

When i first came across the story of Mary it was in footnotes and asides in history books. Historians knew of her, but no-one had considered what a remarkable woman she must have been and what an extraordinary life she led. I remember keeping her very much to myself, absolutely determined not to talk of her before I had the full story and was able to write a novel to do her justice. Her story is an absolute gift to an historical novelist and I am still incredibly thankful to have found it and to have had a chance to look back through time and get an idea of a woman who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe, and made her own way.

Customer Reviews

Good book.....but
...I wish I hadn't been given the newest edition with the movie cover. I couldn't get the image of Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johannson out of my mind when reading The Other Boleyn Girl and it took the edge off things a bit because they were nothing like I wanted to 'see' them in my mind.

That aside.....The story is a fascinating one and Ms Gregory has breathed life into all the characters for me. It's made me hungry for more. I've trawled the web these last couple of days reading everything I can find on the Tudors. My existing knowledge of Henry VIII was limited to schoolgirl history and I only wish I'd had this book, back in the day when History was on my timetable. You know it's a good book when you seek out any little bit of info on the web that relates to the story you've just read.

I'm really amazed though, at the negative reviews here, which site 'inaccuracy' as the reason to give 1 or 2 stars. It's a work of fiction. The characters were real people, but Historical Fiction is just that - Fiction in an Historical setting.

I can't believe people are saying it's a terrible book because it's not 100% accurate. It's fiction. If anyone is looking for 100% Historical accuracy, perhaps a work of non-fiction would suit better?

As a work of fiction, it's a good book.

My only advice is.......don't buy the movie cover edition if you can help it. Unless Ms Portman and Ms Johannson are your exact idea of Mary and Anne Boleyn.

Good, but not a book to be taken literally.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and re-read it often. The characters are interesting, the story is well-paced and well-told, and Phillipa Gregory invokes the sights and sounds of the Tudor court very well. In Mary Boleyn, the book's narrator, she creates a character that the reader cares about, and surrounds her with even more entertaining historical figures - if there is one drawback to this book, it is that Mary is eclipsed by her 'supporting cast'.

However, as good as this book is, it is not one to be believed. Gregory's facts are deeply in question - it is well known that Mary was the older Boleyn sister, not the younger, and her reptutation is at odds with the naive country girl that Gregory presents us with. It is highly unlikely that her children were fathered by the king (he'd never hesitated to bestow myriad titles on his other illigitemate son, after all, and yet Henry Carey, Mary Boleyn's son, went ignored), and the depiction of Anne Boleyn is unnecessarily negative. The pity we are presumably supposed to feel for Anne at the end of the book feels a little forced after Gregory has chronicled the cruelty, selfishness and incest of the character, but nevertheless Anne is fascinating to read about, and once again Gregory's gift for writing good characters is shown spectacularly.

If you read this book as a novel, a story, and ignore the historical innacuracies, then you will almost certainly enjoy it. The relationship between the three Boleyn siblings is interesting, and Gregory is very skilled at showing us the court - so much so, in fact, that the book dims a little when Mary is away from London. Katherine of Aragon is excellently portrayed, and the machinations of the Duke of Norfolk, the head of the Howard family, are intriguing. Mary's love affair with William is touching - all the more so because it is the one thing we can be sure is true.

Excellent book if not factually correct
I read this book last year having always been intrigued by the Boleyn family. Philippa Gregory draws you in with her easy to read style so much so that at times I felt like I was spying on certain conversations and found myself with tears in my eyes during the last few chapters. If you are remotely interested in the Tudors or even if you want to enjoy a good romance then this is the book for you.

I would however, like to point out why this book didn't get 5 stars. The books only failing is that it is factually incorrect and many people seem to take what Philippa Gregory has written about as fact and not the fiction that it is.

There are many different stories about Anne Boleyn some painting her as a saint and some as an all out witch. I felt that Anne was portrayed well in the sense of her ambition and desire to be queen (it was rare in that day and age for a woman to be so sure of her own path which I think makes her an excellent role model). The second half of the book however, follows a story that is a 'rumour' and just one account of what may have really happened. Philippa Gregory states that Anne Boleyn was the eldest daughter when in fact it is still unknown which daughter was born first. According to many historians it is likely that Mary was the eldest. Also do not believe Mary to be the perfect angelic girl painted in this book. It has been recorded that she, unlike her sister Anne, was quite loose with her favours at a very early age, whilst studying in France. Before she was Henry's mistress the King of France at the time boasted that he had had the pleasure of her company on an intimate level referring to her as "my hackney carriage".

If you enjoy this book and would like to learn more I would recommend Alison Weir's book "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" as an excellent follow-on or alternatively "Six Wives" which is soon to be released by David Starkey.