Saturday, November 14, 2009

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory


Copyright: 2003
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Genre: Fiction
Pages:
Challenges: 9 books for 2009, Chunkster challenge
New-to-me Author: yes
Author's Website



Simple Description:
I don't really feel like going into a really good description of the book because I feel the majority of you already know what the story is about. The Howard and Boleyn family plot to raise their family in rank and they are going to do this by forcing the girls/woman to try and seduce and wed King Henry VIII of England. First Mary is forced. She is newly married and has caught the eye of the king. She is told to visit his bed when he requests. She does and has two children by him. While in isolation with the 2nd birth, her sister Anne, is told to go after the king. She does and ends up taking him from Mary. As most of us know she ended up getting Henry to get rid of his wife and marry her, making her Queen, but that all fell apart when she couldn't conceive a boy.

Now what you really want to know....my thoughts:
At first I had trouble with the book just because I have seen the movie. As we can all guess the book and the movie are different. I'm also a huge fan of The Tudors on showtime. Once again, we can guess that they are totally different. So while reading the book I'm noticing how different it is from the movie and the show. However, I was still very interested in the story and once I got into it further, I was able to forget about the Tudors and the movie version and just concentrate on the book itself.

I think the author did a great job with the story. I love that it's from Mary's point of view and that you can see how she is torn between doing what she wants to do and what the family commands her to do. I love that it doesn't totally focus on Anne and the King and the change of religion and how Anne met her end.

I definitely recommend this book to those who enjoy a historical fiction story. This book is well worth the read.


This book is part of my collection and was either bought or given to me.
This audio book was rented from my local library.

8 comments:

bermudaonion said...

One of my neighbors loves Philippa Gregory and tells me this is the book to start with, so hopefully I'll read it one day!

The Cozy Mystery Journal said...

I loved this book. I keep meaning to rent the movie, but I haven't yet. Such a great historical romance book.

Glad you enjoyed it too :)

Unknown said...

Bermudaonion - this was my first by the author and from what everyone says - it seems to be the favorite.

Bella - I preferred the book to the movie, but the movie was still fun because you get to see the period dress, etc.

Ashley said...

I loved this book and I have always been interested in the Boleyn family. I had already seen the movie and the one difference between the book and movie that I noticed immediately was that the book was from Mary's perspective. This is really what made the book great to me.

Unknown said...

Ashley - I loved that the book was from Mary's point of view too.

Anna said...

I've seen the movie and thought it was entertaining enough. Since you preferred the book to the movie, maybe I'll give this one a try at some point. Thanks for the review!

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric

Isabel said...

Did it really go into the details of how her sister "stole" the King from her?

Thanks for participating in the 9 for '09 challenge.

Unknown said...

Isabel - not too much. It was just kinda done. There was detail on how Anne got him and attracted him but for the most part it was that he was Mary's..thens he went to have his 2nd kid and then suddenly he was Anne's.