The Boleyn Inheritance
by Philippa Gregory
List Price:
Our Price: $4.48
You Save: $3.51 (44%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Philippa GregoryEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-12-30
ISBN: 1439124671
Number of pages: 592
Publisher: Pocket Books
Book Reviews of The Boleyn Inheritance
Book Review: King Henry the Eighth to six wives he was wedded...
Summary: 5 Stars
...one died, one survived, two divorced, two beheaded. So goes an old English children's rhyme about one of history's most famous monarchs, and Philippa Gregory follows up her account of the tortured life and death of Anne Boleyn with a fascinating tale of three women who impacted on Henry's life afterwards, two directly and one tangentially: his fourth and fifth wives, the least known of the six, and his ex-sister-in-law and Anne's nemesis, Jane Boleyn.
The story recounts the period between 1539 and 1542, opening at the death of Henry's third wife, Jane Seymour, who died tragically of childbed complications following the birth of Henry's only living son, Edward VI. Henry is urged to marry again for political reasons, to form an alliance with the duchy of Cleves against the threatened alliance of France and Spain. His choice is Anne of Cleves, a shy, retiring young woman who has been derided in the history books as looking like the north end of a southbound horse. Actually, Anne didn't look that bad at all, if her portrait is anywhere near accurate. Gregory says that Anne welcomed the marriage as a way out of an unhappy and abusive home life. But she puts a fascinating -- and who knows, maybe true -- spin on the tale by speculating that it was Anne who was turned off by Henry, who was by then no longer the handsome young king who had married Katherine of Aragón and Anne Boleyn, but a fat, gross, middle-aged monarch, reeking from a suppurating open sore on his leg, and Henry was so affected by Anne of Cleve's repulsion -- probably seeing himself for the first time as other people saw him and appalled at the picture -- that he was unable to consummate the marriage. After only a few months Anne is packed off to live by herself after wisely agreeing to a generous divorce settlement, and had sense enough to keep a low profile during the subsequent years until Henry's death left her a rich and independent woman.
Free of Anne, Henry turns his attention to Katherine Howard, a fifteen-year-old airhead whose sole virtues were her extreme youth and a very pretty face. Poor Katherine is overwhelmed by the prospect of being Queen and having as many pretty dresses as she wants, and for a time she tries to be a good wife to Henry, but it's not easy, as he's older, fatter, smellier, and all Katherine really wants is to be able to love a young man nearer her own age. She is helped to fulfill her wish by Jane Boleyn, one of history's most reviled (perhaps rightfully, perhaps not), and actually least known characters.
As presented by Gregory, Jane Boleyn is a spiteful, bitter harpy whose sole motive in lying about an incestuous relationship between her husband George Boleyn and his sister Anne Boleyn, which got them both sent to the execution block, was jealousy. Jane Boleyn takes a seemingly motherly interest in young Katherine and encourages her to take young lovers behind the King's back. Why in the world she did this, knowing how Henry would react, especially considering the danger to her if Henry even suspected her complicity, is anyone's guess. It's possible that Jane Boleyn simply felt she belonged in the center of the action, instead of being relegated to the sidelines as she felt she had been by George and Anne Boleyn, and she got considerably more than she bargained for.
Gregory weaves her tale by alternating chapters narrated by Anne of Cleves, Katherine, and Jane Boleyn, and does it so well that you never lose track of any of the three plot lines. Anne of Cleves was more or less in the background after Henry cast her off, but her life was never secure as long as Henry lived, as he grew more suspicious, vengeful and cruel with each passing year. She must have lived on tenterhooks until his death, never knowing if someone would come knocking on her door in the middle of the night to haul her off to the Tower. Katherine narrates the rise and fall of her fortunes like the superficial airhead she is, listing the growing or declining number of her dresses and jewels, unable to understand why everybody is making such a fuss over her dalliance with a younger man. And Jane Boleyn becomes more and more unwrapped as she finds herself trapped in a mess largely of her own making, used and discarded with equal contempt by her uncle Thomas Howard, the third Duke of Norfolk, whose personal and family ambitions managed to wreck several lives before he himself was arrested by Henry on a charge of treason.
Gregory has given us a fascinating, well-written tale of three unforgettable women. This book is definitely her best one to date.
Judy Lind
Summary of The Boleyn Inheritance
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.
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.
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.
Historical Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Historical Books
Pirate Latitudes: A Novelby Michael Crichton
Harper; Published: 2009-11-24; Roughcut; Book
Best price: $2.28
Price in other shops:
The Master Butchers Singing Club: A Novelby Louise Erdrich
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.83
Price in other shops:
The Last Witchfinder: A Novelby James Morrow
William Morrow; Published: 2006-03-14; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Zorroby Isabel Allende
HarperAudio; Published: 2005-05-03; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $3.03
Price in other shops:
The Hot Kid: A Novelby Elmore Leonard
William Morrow; Published: 2005-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.89
Price in other shops:
The Last Kingdom (The Saxon Chronicles Series #1)Mass Market Paperback; Book
Bones of the Hills (Conqueror, Book 3)by Conn Iggulden
Harper Collins Canada; Published: 2008; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $44.70
Marchby Geraldine Brooks
Penguin Books; Published: 2006; Paperback; Book
Gates of Rome (Emperor 1)by Conn Iggulden
Harpercollins Pb; Published: 2003-09-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.80
Girl With a Pearl Earringby Tracy Chevalier
Harper Collins Audio; Published: 2002-06-17; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $86.82
Similar Books and other products
The Constant Princess (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2006-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.74
Price in other shops:
The Lady of the Rivers: A Novel (War of the Roses)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2011-10-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.74
Price in other shops:
The Wise Woman: A Novelby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2008-05-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops:
The White Queen: A Novel (Cousins' War (Touchstone Paperback))by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2010-04-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.89
Price in other shops:
The Other Queenby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2009-07-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.24
Price in other shops:
The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2005-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.45
Price in other shops:
The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2004-02-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.78
Price in other shops:
The Red Queen: A Novel (The Cousin's War)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2011-06-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
The Other Boleyn Girlby Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2003-06-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.46
Price in other shops:
The Constant Princess (Boleyn)by Philippa Gregory
Touchstone; Published: 2006-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.20
Price in other shops: