Sunday, March 9, 2008

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory


It seems like it took me forever to get through this book, but really, I enjoyed it! This is the 2nd Gregory book I've read now, and I'm really looking forward to reading more.

Everyone and their mother knows the premise of this book, I suppose, given its popularity and the release of the movie last week. Mary Boleyn is the sister of Anne Boleyn. Both girls are pawns for the powerful Boleyn and Howard families, and Mary is the first sister to be dangled before the king (even though she is a married girl of the ripe age of 15!). This is the story of Anne's rise to her role as Queen of England, from the viewpoint of Mary.

There's a lot of controversy as to the historical accuracy of this book, but I enjoyed it for what it is - historical FICTION.

I've heard mixed reviews of the movie, but I'm dying to go see it anyway. I suppose it will have to wait until at least next weekend, now, though.

This book counts as one of 4 books 450 pages or longer for the Chunkster Challenge.

3 comments:

Lezlie said...

Don't you hate when people get all huffy-puffy over historical accuracy in a fiction book? Like you said -- it's Historical FICTION. Philippa Gregory is really good at making it sound like she was a fly on the wall at those conversations, though! :-) You can completely picture it all happening just like she describes.

Lezlie

Somer said...

Absolutely! Her books are very vivid.

Danielle said...

I can attest to people's huffiness on historical accuracy. When I mentioned I was watching (and enjoying) The Tudors on a post someone left me a huffy comment. Ack. It's cable TV--I'm watching it for entertainment purposes only--not telling anyone to read it and learn all about British history! I have this book and really need to get to it. It sounds entertaining, too.