The Boleyn Inheritance: Summary and book reviews of The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory, plus links to an excerpt from The Boleyn Inheritance and a biography of Philippa Gregory.
The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
Hardcover: Dec 2006,
528 pages.
Paperback: Aug 2007,
544 pages.
THREE WOMEN WHO SHARE ONE FATE: THE BOLEYN INHERITANCE
ANNE OF CLEVES
She runs from her tiny country, her hateful mother, and her abusive brother to a throne whose last three occupants are dead. King Henry VIII, her new husband, instantly dislikes her. Without friends, family, or even an understanding of the language being spoken around her, she must literally save her neck in a court ruled by a deadly game of politics and the terror of an unpredictable and vengeful king. Her Boleyn Inheritance: accusations and false witnesses.
KATHERINE HOWARD
She catches the king's eye within moments of arriving at court, setting in motion the dreadful machine of politics, intrigue, and treason that she does not understand. She only knows that she is beautiful, that men desire her, that she is young and in love -- but not with the diseased old man who made her queen, beds her night after night, and killed her cousin Anne. Her Boleyn Inheritance: the threat of the axe.
JANE ROCHFORD
She is the Boleyn girl whose testimony sent her husband and sister-in-law to their deaths. She is the trusted friend of two threatened queens, the perfectly loyal spy for her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, and a canny survivor in the murderous court of a most dangerous king. Throughout Europe, her name is a byword for malice, jealousy, and twisted lust. Her Boleyn Inheritance: a fortune and a title, in exchange for her soul.
The Boleyn Inheritance is a novel drawn tight as a lute string about a court ruled by the gallows and three women whose positions brought them wealth, admiration, and power as well as deceit, betrayal, and terror. Once again, Philippa Gregory has brought a vanished world to life -- the whisper of a silk skirt on a stone stair, the yellow glow of candlelight illuminating a hastily written note, the murmurs of the crowd gathering on Tower Green below the newly built scaffold. In The Boleyn Inheritance Gregory is at her intelligent and page-turning best.
BOOK REVIEWS
BookBrowse
Gregory describes The Boleyn Inheritance as her current favorite book out of all that she's written. Many of her loyal readers will likely agree. If you enjoy well researched historical fiction and have yet to discover Philippa Gregory a good place to start would be with The Boleyn Inheritance or any other of her Tudor series (such as The Constant Princess also featured at BookBrowse); all, except The Boleyn Inheritance, are available in paperback. Full Review (1161 words).
Media Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
Gregory's knowledge of the period, combined with her novelistic skill, allows her to view this grim tale through the eyes of the three women: wily, experienced Jane; naive, sensible Anne; and vain, greedy young Kitty. Their first-person accounts are convincing and shockingly self-serving. Royal history spoon-fed in a highly digestible form.
Booklist - Margaret Flanagan
Narrated in turn by this trio of intriguing women, this tale of court politics and treachery unfolds from three equally compelling points of view.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Rich in intrigue and irony, this is a tale where readers will already know who was divorced, beheaded or survived, but will savor Gregory's sharp staging of how and why.
Recent Reader Reviews
Rated of 5
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(1161 words).
Kirkus Reviews
of 5
by Cariola
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