The Constant Princess (Boleyn)
by Philippa Gregory
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Book Reviews of The Constant Princess (Boleyn)
Book Review: Remarkably Shallow and Inaccurate
Summary: 1 Stars
What a bizarre book! I have read many fictional biographies of the Tudor era and this is one of the very worst. Not only are the characters very shallow and one-dimensional, the entire premise is historically inaccurate.
Katharine of Aragon was a very pious, deeply devout Roman Catholic and to suggest that she embraced Moslem customs and beliefs is just too bizarre to believe. She was also deeply devoted to Henry VIII and to suggest otherwise goes against documented historical record.
As if the sappy storyline (suitable for a romance novel)wasn't insult enough, Ms. Gregory's disregard for truth is the one constant thread in the whole entire novel.
To cap it off, the disjointed narrative method adds its own cachet of awfullness. I personally don't need to read every few pages that Katharine believed herself born and designated by God to be Queen of England.
Nora Lofts has written a far better book about her-the Kings Pleasure. Do yourself a favor and read it
Book Review: What happened to the end?
Summary: 4 Stars
Knowing absolutely nothing about the history, I was able to enjoy this book without being put off by the apparent historical inaccuracies. My main problem with the book is that it seems the entire end of the book is cut off. We go into great detail about Katherine's life for many years, we see her relationship with Arthur, her relationship with Henry, we share her sorrow when she loses her babies. The main part of the book ends with Katherine being pregnant (we assume with Mary), but we don't get to experience her joy of finally having a child. The relationship between Katherine and Henry goes from being amicable (and him being an apologetic cheater) to years ahead when he's leaving her for good, with no explanation as to how we got there. How did Katherine fall out of favor? Why did Henry reconcile with Anne after sending her away from court? There's a huge gap at the end, almost as if they ran out of budget and had to cut some pages, so they just took a bunch out.Book Review: Not my favorite but learned a lot
Summary: 2 Stars
I was expecting a lot more from this book. I found it actually kind of boring at times. I love Philippa Gregory but I wasn't impressed by this one. I think Katherine was a great and admirable woman and I hate how her life ended but nothing too much happened in this book. Here's a summary: Katherine came from a powerful kingdom whose parents were great warriors. She married King Henry VIII's brother out of love but he died and married King Henry VIII who was much younger than her and who did have a boy's puppy love for her. They reined side by side for the first few years of their marriage and Henry trusted and honored Katherine. Until he began to come into manhood and became paranoid and had a wondering eye. From there it tells how Henry falls out of love with Katherine and in love with Anne Boleyn and how he tries to denounce their marriage and cast her out which she eventually dies of emotional and physcial neglect. That sums it up.Book Review: Horribly disappointed
Summary: 2 Stars
I give it 2 stars for effort, but it was quite frustrating to read this book. I really had high hopes for it. I've read "Earthly Joys" and "The Other Boleyn Girl", both of which I found enjoyable, despite the comma splice errors et. al. This story, however, was told with such cumbersome and repetitive diction that I put it down after the first 1/5 and gnashed my teeth in exasperation.
Apart from the annoying stylistic faux pas, the character and plot development proved woefully improbable and wholly unsatisfactory. Catalina is very rarely amiable, and for the most part she comes across as arrogant, religiously fanatical, stubborn and somewhat asinine. Every time she mentions her mother I just want to slap her.
I painfully finished the book after a 2-week hiatus, hoping that a fresh perspective might help, but unfortunately the story just grew more and more tiresome. I hardly even know how I managed to endure it.
Book Review: Annoyingly written and repetitive
Summary: 2 Stars
I'm halfway through this book and I'm not thrilled with it, but it's entertaining enough to finish, despite the fact that the characters are wooden and one-dimensional, and the writing is boring. As others have said, Gregory often repeats certain points to death. Every other page, it seems, Catalina is reminding herself and everyone else that she is the Infanta of Spain/Princess of Wales/Queen to be/daughter of Isabella and that everything is God's will. I find myself skimming a lot of these passages because they're so repetetive and don't further the story at all. The author also has an annoying habit of using "D'you" in her dialog, which doesn't fit with the formal style of the rest of her writing, and using "especial" instead of special. She doesn't use any other "Spanish-isms", so her use of "especial" seems gratuitous.
I bought "The Other Boelyn Girl" at the same time, and I hope that it's better than this book.