The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn)
by Philippa Gregory
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Book Reviews of The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn)
Book Review: Queens Mary and Elizabeth battle it out
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first Philippa Gregory book I read and it was hard to put down. This is the story of how the offspring of King Henry VIII battle it out for the throne. At the beginning of the story, young Edward VI - Henry's only male heir - is on the throne, but is dying from what was probably tubuerculosis. Without an heir of his own, Edward's older sisters are next in line for the throne. Mary, daughter of Katherine of Aragon (Henry's first wife), is the oldest, but her sister Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn (Henry's infamous second wife), is an ambitious and scheming woman and wants the throne for herself. Throughout the course of the novel, we see the final days of Edward's reign, the reign of Mary, and the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth.
The narrator of the story is Hannah Green. She and her father have fled to England from Spain because the Spanish Inquisition is out to get Jews like them. Hannah's mother died at the hands of the Inquisition before the family was able to escape. While Hannah's father maintains a print shop in London, Hannah becomes a holy fool for the brief remainder of Edward's life, and then takes on the same role for Queen Mary. She often finds herself being a confidant of the queen, and when Mary's paranoia about Elizabeth's scheming increases, Hannah ends up spending a lot of time being Elizabeth's companion so she can report back to Mary. Hannah finds much to admire in both women, and often finds herself torn in her allegiances. She also finds her life put in considerable risk because of her assocation with them.
This is a well-told story about a fascinating period of British history. My one recommendation to people who want to read this book is that you read two of Gregory's other books first. The Constant Princess is about Queen Katherine of Aragon, Mary's mother. The Other Boleyn Girl is about Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth's mother. With those novels as background, I think the events in The Queen's Fool make more sense. Since I read this one first, I often had to go digging around on the internet to figure out - for example - what Mary was talking about when she said how ill-treated her mother was and how they were seperated from each other for much of Mary's life. If you're well-read in your Tudor history, though, then dive right into The Queen's Fool. It's a good read.
Book Review: Just OK
Summary: 3 Stars
Frankly, the author's odd choice of writing almost completely in comma splices really put me off. I found it hard to concentrate on the story when this major usage error kept popping out at me over and over. I only wish I was exaggerating.
Aside from that, the story moves along, and I was intrigued by the characters. Frankly, I thought the best part of the story was the portion the protagonist, Hannah Green, spent in Calais. I was much more interested in her story as a Jew in the Renaissance than all the palace intrigues.
I did not understand Hannah's divided loyalties. She seemed to serve several masters and equally love them all, which didn't make sense to me. Also, no reasons were really shown why she should love these people, who really hadn't done all that much to earn it, frankly.
The writer seemed to me to choose very obvious aspects of Judaism to demonstrate her characters' religion, although perhaps this was on purpose, too. One would not necessarily want to confuse Gentile readers who didn't know much about Judaism. Gregory also has the excuse that her characters are actively hiding their religion and do not remember all their customs, nor keep them out of fear of being discovered as Jews. Still, I found the depiction of this side of Hannah's life rather basic.
Another complaint I have about Gregory's writing is that her dialogue is not period, which is something I noted while reading The Other Boleyn Girl. It is a little off-putting to find so much non-period dialogue in a piece of historical fiction. Particularly annoying was the repetitive use of "D'you" for "Did you."
After I have said all that, you might wonder why it merited the "three stars." Like I said, it was readable. I did become interested in the characters. I don't think I could have finished it, considering all its flaws, if it didn't have these good qualities. I found it odd and intriguing to see Mary portrayed so sympathetically. However, to paraphrase Will Somers, the Fool, history did not remember Mary's good qualities, just as they did not remember her father's. As he is remembered as a lecherous wife-killer, she is remembered for her burning of "heretics," mostly Protestants, which rightly earned her the appellation Bloody Mary.
Book Review: Problematic in some places, but undeniably entertaining
Summary: 3 Stars
There is a lot I could pick on in this novel. The protagonist, Hannah Verde, is a suspiciously progressive-thinking young Jewish girl living in England to escape the Spanish Inquisition. Although her personality is wildly anachronistic for the time period, she's an engaging enough heroine. The plot depends on the contrivance that Hannah somehow becomes a close attendant to both Mary I and her half-sister the Lady Elizabeth. Despite knowing that Mary would have her burned at the stake if she knew of her religion, she is improbably devoted to her. And if this were not enough to stretch credibility, Hannah is also gifted with the supernatural gift of "the Sight." Yet despite all of this, The Queen's Fool is an entertaining page-turner of a historical romance/thriller.
Hannah is the eyes through which we see the rivalry between Mary I, gifted with the unfortunate name of "Bloody Mary" by posterity, and her sister the celebrated future Elizabeth I. The author is obviously biased in favor of Mary, which is not entirely unfair as Mary arguably possessed more personal virtues than Elizabeth. But the extent to which Elizabeth is vilified is ridiculous. The smear campaign begins when Hannah sees the fourteen-year old Elizabeth engaged in sexually-charged "games" with Sir Thomas Seymour, husband of her guardian Catherine Parr. It is stated several times throughout the book that Elizabeth somehow encouraged this behavior, and is later used as evidence that Elizabeth is a chronic home-wrecker who enjoys stealing other women's husbands. While it is true that Elizabeth enjoyed relationships with married men in her reign, most infamously Robert Dudley, I found the notion that at age fourteen she seduced the man who abused his position as her guardian and probably molested her rather offensive.
Apart from the less-than-ideal characterization of Elizabeth, the book is entertaining and compulsively readable. The better portrayals are actually of lesser-known historical figures, like the late King Henry VIII's jester Will Sommers and John Dee, mathematician and astrologer extraordinaire. Serious history this is not, but as a light bit of fluff with a backdrop of familiar Tudor characters it works well.
Book Review: A new perspective on some familar characters
Summary: 4 Stars
How do you reconcile your beliefs with your heart? That's the central question at the heart of this novel, a look at the reign of Bloody Mary, Queen of England, through the sympathetic eyes of a young woman who would have every excuse in the world to hate and fear her. Hannah Green is a Spanish Jew who has fled the Inquisition with her father. Furthermore, she has the second Sight, the gift of prophecy, which could immediately condemn her as a witch even if she weren't burned for heresy. Yet Hannah is taken into the English court as a holy fool, protected first by her patron Lord Robert Dudley, then by the Queen she comes to serve and love, the Catholic Mary.
The contradiction of Hannah's devotion to Mary is both the novel's greatest conflict and its worst sticking point. It allows us to regain sympathy for a tragic figure who has been demonized by history, overshadowed by the greatness of her younger sister Elizabeth. Yet let's face it, the condemnation is not entirely unfounded. Bloody Mary did attempt to bring the Inquisition to England, burning hundreds of Protestants in the hopes of returning England to the "true faith" (and, as this book points out, in revenge for Henry VIII's divorcing her mother Katharine of Aragon).
Part of the problem lies with Gregory's protagonist, Hannah, who appears absolutely incapable of criticizing anyone, from the traitorous Dudley to the fanatical Mary to the manipulative Elizabeth. In loving and respecting all of them equally, Gregory perhaps thought she was making Hannah a fair and unbiased narrator. Instead, we see Hannah as a true fool indeed, blindly placing her trust and love in people who care next to nothing for her. Indeed, the best part of the book comes when Hannah flees to Calais with her new husband, where she finally grows a spine and stands up to her catty and snide in-laws.
Nevertheless, while certain aspects of the book are weak or implausible, the overall effect is impressive. This is a vibrantly drawn historical novel, offering fresh portrayals of familiar figures and a new perspective on a dark period of England's history, featuring flawed but likable characters. I would recommend it to any fan of historical fiction.
Book Review: Nothing Special
Summary: 3 Stars
I read this book because the narrator is a Marrano Jew and I am the head of a book club that requires a certain percentage of its books to have Jewish content. However, the novel was a tedious rendition of the plots, subplots and conspiracies between the remaining two children of Henry the 8th. Qween Mary, his daugher by his first wife and Princess Elizabeth, his beautiful red headed daughter by Anne Bolyn vie for control of the English throne. Mary a Catholic turns to burning all protestants and other heretics at the stake for refusing to become ardent Catholics. Even those that convert to Catholocism are not safe. Her inquisitors question their faith and if they don't meet with the inquisitors' satisfaction they are tortured to extract a confession and information and then burned at the stake. Much like the Spanish Inquisition perpetrated against the Jews, this horrifinc inquisition is perpetrated against the Protestants. Queen Mary suffers two false pregnancies or miscarriages. Her much younger and very handsome husband, Prince Phillip of Spain marries her as a sort of merger of the Spanish empire and the English crown. He falls for her much younger beautiful sister, Princess Elizbeth much to her consternation, for it was Elizabeth's mother who caused her mother to be imprisoned. Clearly, the author has researched her subject well. However, the banal vulgarity in a few of her romantic scenes was unneccessary and gratuitous something for which I have disdain.The language was pretentious though she may have used these words to establish a more accurate Tudor and Elizabethan atmosphere. Most of the book was tedious and plodding. The only parts that grabbed me were the subplots of Hannah's life outside court. However, that was only about 1/5th of the book and about 300 pages into it. The rave reviews on the back flap refer to her other novel, The Other Bolyn Girl. I suggest you read that instead. If I could I would give this book two and a half stars.