The Other Boleyn Girl

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Gregory, Philippa, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Gregory, Philippa
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Pittsfield Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Gregory, Philippa	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Gregory, Philippa	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Gregory, Philippa	4-week checkout	Due 05-11-2024

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king. When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her family's ambitious plots as the king's interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands A rich and compelling tale of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her own heart.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Rich people, poor destinies submitted by larkspur on July 11, 2007, 2:53pm First of all, this book is obviously fiction that merely uses historical outlines as a jumping-off point. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, but do not go to Gregory's work looking to learn history. For instance, although there is disputed evidence for Gregory's birth years for the Boleyn siblings (1505-1507), it is more commonly accepted that Anne was born in 1501/02 and that Mary, Henry VIII's earlier lover, was the older of the sisters. Since Anne was unable to marry King Henry until 1533, the earlier and more solid date for her birth enlightens their love story (and political story) with a fascinating perspective--just not the perspective from which Gregory wants to tell her tale.

The extreme youth of the characters in Gregory's novel (which opens in the early 1520s, with Anne and Mary long since prominent ladies-in-waiting at court) is only one of the reasons to feel sorry for them: all of them. In fact, my most prominent feeling in reading this book was one of sympathy for the court's casualties, which very much included the King himself, and his humanity. The Howards use their kin the Boleyns, Henry uses his subjects, Anne uses Mary shamelessly--yet Henry VIII is also used, both subtly and openly, by the ambitious ones of his court, who see him not as their governor and sovereign lord (though they might like him to think that) but rather as Old Moneybags.

The melodramatic tale is engaging, and very sad. If it inspires you to learn more about the equally dramatic and tragic real stories, all the better.

The Tudors submitted by Jen Chapin-Smith on July 28, 2013, 5:55pm Most people do not realize that before he married Anne Boleyn, England's King Henry VIII had an affair with her married sister, Mary, and had two children with her. In "The Other Boleyn Girl," Philippa Gregory tells the story of this affair and Mary's subsequent life from Mary's perspective. For the most part, the novel is very historically accurate and based on meticulous research. However, in some places Gregory takes poetic license, such as portraying Anne and her brother as actually having an affair. This was one of the charges Henry and his lawyers laid against Anne and her brother, George, when Henry wanted a new wife, but the charge is highly unlikely to have been true.
Film makers have since turned the novel into a movie, but the novel is far better, and I would recommend the book over the movie.