The Other Boleyn Girl

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 familys ambitious plots as the kings 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, The 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.

Gregory's novel opens and closes with two executions -- it begins with the execution of the Duke of Buckingham in 1521, and ends with the execution of Anne Boleyn in 1536. With this rather grim events framing her book, the novel proper starts in 1522, with Anne arrival at the Tudor court, where her elder sister, Mary, is already lady-in-waiting to Henry's wife, Queen Katherine. From the very beginning we see that while there is a bond that ties the Boleyn sisters together, there is also a deep rooted rivalry between them. It is a tense time at court: the queen (already quite a few years older than her husband) has yet to produce a male heir to the throne, and people are beginning to question if the aging queen will ever be able to bear children again. Some of Henry's advisers are even began to gently hint that he should put his Spanish wife aside and look for a younger more fecund wife. In the midst of all this intrigue, Mary soon catches the king's roving eye. Although she is married and still quite loyal to the queen, her family (her ruthless parents as well as her uncle, the powerful and equally ruthless Duke of Howard) decrees that she put her marriage and loyalties aside and cater to the whims of her king. Bedazzled, it doesn't take Mary very long to fall in love with both her golden king and her role as the his 'unofficial' wife. A few years and two royal by-blows later however, Mary is shunted aside when the king begins to loose interest in their relationship and her ambitious family fearful that they will loose all the power that they have gained, throws the more ruthless and seductive sister, Anne at the king's head. From then on Mary, her eyes finally wide open as to how low her family will stoop in order to gain power, watches from the sidelines as her family, led by Anne, begins their high stakes play for the queen's crown. Finally realizing that she can only depend on herself for her own future, Mary is inspired to take a few risks herself in order to gain some measure of happiness and security.

The sheer scope of this novel is gigantic -- there were so many things that were going on both on and off stage and the number of people that were involved in all these shenanigans! So that it was a treat to find that the novel unfolded smoothly and effortlessly, and that Gregory did not drop the ball once. She kept each chapter short and succinct, and yet still managed to give the reader an enthralling and exciting account of what was going on. I also liked the manner in which she depicted all the characters in this novel. From Queen Katherine who was portrayed not only as a loyal and loving wife, but also as an intelligent woman who saw and understood what was going on around her, even as she clung to the hope that the king would recover from his obsession with Anne; to the authour's chilling portrayal of the Boleyn family (father, mother, Anne and George). With a few well chosen words and phrases, she's paints them as wildly ambitious, ruthless and pettily cruel individuals, willing to use each other in order to achieve a particular goal. But the authour's characterization of Mary Boleyn was probably the best thing in the novel. Here we see a young and intelligent woman with a heart and a sense of morality that is constantly at war with her feeling of familial obligations. How Mary struggles with this dueling feelings and the decisions she makes -- sometimes good, sometimes bad -- is what makes this novel worth reading.

All in all, I'd say "The Other Boleyn Girl" is a rich and rewarding read.


Incredible Historical Fiction   January 11, 2003
151 out of 168 found this review helpful

The Other Boleyn Girl, is hands down the best piece of historical fiction I have ever read. Upon reading it, I have been searching for other books of its genre and subject matter to delve into.

Gregory made these characters come alive for me, and made me understand how difficult it was to live as a woman in the early 1500s. Mary was especially well crafted. At 13 years old she went from her forced marriage to being thrown into the King's arms as his mistress. The inner struggles she fought between being true to herself and her heart, or true to her family were especially poignant.

Anne Boleyn, the most famous and tragically terminated sister, is portrayed in such a venomous way. She would stop at nothing to get what she wanted, and to rise in power and prestige. In the end it killed her. But her character, as portrayed by Ms. Gregory, was compelling and convincingly ugly, despite her beauty.

King Henry VIII also jumped off the pages. He came off as a spoiled brat, even as he grew older, who always got what he wanted. He and Anne were well matched for each other as no level of deceipt was too high.

Ms. Gregory was brilliant in choosing Mary as the narrator of this book. In doing so, the manipulative and scheming nature of Anne was able to come alive, as was the unorthodox lifestyle chosen by George Boleyn, the brother. The relationship amongst the Boleyn siblings, in and of itself, could fill a novel. The complexities of a family struggling to maintain individual identities, while working to bring the family up to the highest level of stature is intense.

This book is a page turner; it is incredibly compelling, deep and fascinating. I learned a great deal about the monarchy of Henry VII as well as life in the court during that time period. At the same time, I found myself incredibly entertained and saddened when I reached the last page. I cannot wait for more from Ms. Gregory.


A quality read -- and solidly researched   July 24, 2003
35 out of 41 found this review helpful

I'm glad so many readers appreciate this book's terrific pacing and riveting narrative. Anne Boleyn's rise and fall is one of the great, intriguing stories of English history, and Philippa Gregory does it ample justice. An extra spin and spice is gained by viewing events through the eyes of Mary, Anne's sister and predecessor in sexual intrigue with Henry VIII.

Gregory's portrayal of life in an ambitious, rapacious family is vivid and chilling. Mary Boleyn is ambivalent about the costs of her family's high ambition but absolutely vulnerable to its every demand. It says much about Gregory's persuasiveness as a storyteller that Mary remains a sympathetic figure even as she participates in schemes that run counter to her own conscience.

Regarding the assertions that Gregory gets her historical facts wrong, it should be noted that recent scholarship does indeed place Anne as the elder sister and Mary the younger (the birth order used by Gregory).

There is no contemporary record as to when either Boleyn girl was born. However, the family's decision to send Anne -- not Mary -- to be educated abroad at the court of Margaret, regent of the Netherlands, is cited by recent biographers as important evidence that Anne must have been the elder sister: "By contemporary custom, the younger child would not have been favored with such a splendid opportunity to the detriment of her older sister..." (Anne later spent additional time abroad at the court of France.)

Mary Boleyn was the first sister married, something that would normally indicate she was the elder sister. But Anne was still abroad at the time, and her family may have been hoping for a more splendid match for her with a European nobleman. There is also evidence that the Boleyns were trying (ultimately without success) to betroth Anne to the heir of the earl of Ormond. Both circumstances would explain why they were willing to defer the marriage of an elder daughter and go ahead with an advantageous, though not as splendid, union for their younger girl. These observations come from Retha Warnicke's scholarly study of Anne's life, which Gregory cites as one of her major sources.

Sorry if I made eyes glaze over with all this, but it really is unfair to assert that Gregory (whose books are in general distinguished by careful craftmanship) fouled up her facts or distorted them for the sake of a better story. She definitely makes artful conjectures -- impossible to avoid with subjects of whom very few hard facts are known. But her conjectures fall within a solid historical framework.

If you enjoyed Gregory's fluid, page-turning touch in this book, take a look at some of her other historical fiction, such as her "Wideacre" trilogy.


The Other Boleyn Girl   November 16, 2003
Michele Burnett (Calgary, Canada)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I am a historical fiction fan who has read countless books about the tyrannical reign of Henry VIII and his collection of wives. I have always found the love affair between Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII to be particularly fascinating and have read and reread the story from the point of view of several of the characters including the self-serving Anne Boleyn and the "woe is me" Henry VIII. Philippa Gregory has certainly added an interesting perspective by writing this story from the heart and mind of Anne's all too often forgotten sister Mary Boleyn. In "The Other Boleyn Girl", Mary is portrayed as the heroine who is mercilessly forced by her power hungry family to become Henry's lover, and not the blithering buxom empty shell that she is typically portrayed as. Mary Boleyn is a woman with the morals and the courage to stand beside those that she loves. Without a doubt, "The Other Boleyn Girl" was a great read that kept me up at night turning the pages of a story that normally I could recite by heart, however written in such a new and refreshing manner that I could not help but hope that the final outcome somehow, someway, might be different this time.


Amazing! I devoured this book (and skipped sleeping!)   September 24, 2002
J M (Somewhere in Ft. Worth, TX)
22 out of 25 found this review helpful

I picked this book up on a whim. I'd never heard of the author, and I normally stick to ones that I like.

I am completely blown away. This is the first book in a very long time that I felt I simply MUST sit down and read and find out what happens. It's just amazing.

The story follows the lesser known of the Boleyn sisters, Mary. Her early years at court, her romance with the king, her marriage, and her tumultuous love/hate relationship with her sister Anne are all incredibly detailed. The author wants you to love and hate Anne at the same time, and Mary as well, and somehow you do. You get to watch first-hand as Anne battles her way past her sister's star at Henry's court only to supplant her, and later fall (as history tells). Only we see it all from Anne's sister's point of view -- a naive, innocent, well meaning girl that hates herself for betraying those that she loves for the betterment of her all-consuming family.

Characterization will make or break a book more often than not. I found that 'The Other Boleyn Girl' was wonderfully written, and the characters rich and complex. Mary is simple, but she has layers of duplicity about her, and you can't help but admire her when she discovers her backbone. Anne is her foil, and you hate her at the same time that you admire her tenacity and fire. You even understand the (frequently) caricatured figures of Henry VIII, Catherine of Aragon, and Jane Seymour. On a perspective note, this book is written in first person -- Mary's story -- yet the telling is so rich and watchful that it doesn't hamper the tale one bit.

I really loved this book. I'm off to find out what other gems Philippa Gregory has written lately. If they are HALF as good as this book, I will be utterly pleased.