Product Description

Reissue of Philippa Gregory's disturbing novel of passion and betrayal in Tudor England. A haunting story of a woman's desire in a time of turbulence. Alys joins the nunnery to escape hardship and poverty but finds herself thrown back into the outside world when Henry VIII's wreckers destroy her sanctuary. With nothing to support her but her looks, her magic and her own instinctive cunning, Alys has to tread a perilous path between the faith of her childhood and her own female power. When she falls in love with Hugo, the feudal lord and another woman's husband, she dips into witchcraft to defeat her rival and to win her lover, but finds -- as her cynical old foster-mother had advised -- that magic makes a poor servant but a dominant master. Since heresy against the new church means the stake, and witchcraft the rope, Alys's danger is mortal. A woman's powers are no longer safe to use!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8123 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 640 pages

Review
Praise for 'The Wise Woman': 'Compulsively readable.' Andrea Newman, Sunday Express 'Gregory's principal feat in this elaborate novel is the irrefutable artistry with which she lends her prose a constant sense of history!Success results from the tense, almost shocking contrast between serious issues -- religious doctrine, political integrity, social dynamics -- and flights of erotic fancy.' Sunday Times

About the Author
Philippa Gregory is an internationally renowned author of historical novels. She holds a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. Works that have been adapted for television include A Respectable Trade, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. The Other Boleyn Girl is now a major film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family.

Customer Reviews

Surprisingly disappointing
I have read other Phillipa Gregory novels and really enjoyed them, especially The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. Sadly this book was a real let down. The historical detail is interesting but the characters are dislikable and behave in a bizarre fashion most of the time. The main character, Alys and the male lead Hugo, frankly deserve each other as they are self obsessed and self destructive. The book is full of explicit sex scenes far more so than the other novels by this author which I have read. I was not shocked by this but felt they added little to the narrative and proved a poor compensation for unadequate character development.

I do like the work of Phillipa Gregory but would not recommend this particular novel. If you want a good story read The Other Boleyn Girl, The Respectable Trade or The Queen's Fool and give this one a miss.

Great book but not a historical novel
I have read many of Philippa Gregorys book, but they have all been historical novels, so i looked forward to reading this one as it isn't. I thought the book was great and didnt want to put it down. You start off feeling sorry for Alys, but i have to say by the middle I thought she was very conniving. The ending is quite abrupt, but i actually liked it, as Alys let her true feelings come out. I have only just read all the other reviews and am surprised that it has so many bad ones. It is not like 'The Other Boleyn Girl' or 'The Queens Fool', but not all her books can be like that. And I thought introducing the white magic/herbalism was great as they did do that then. I think the wax dolls and sexual encounters were just tricks of the mind and herb Alys used. I would recommend this book to people but dont expect a historical novel, as it isn't one. I loved it.

Not her best.
I've read 'The Other Boleyn Girl' and 'The Virgin Queen' and loved both of them so this book was a little disappointing. Alys is so unsympathetic right from the start that you can have little interest in her fate. Characters bizarrely rise from the dead or turn into animals, and the sex scenes are gratuitous, grubby and turn your stomach. Philippa Gregory is a superb writer, but this isn't my favoutite.