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    The Other Boleyn Girl
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    The Other Boleyn Girl
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    The Other Boleyn Girl
    Ebook800 pages13 hours

    The Other Boleyn Girl

    By Philippa Gregory

    4/5

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateNov 11, 2011
    ISBN9780007370146
    Author

    Philippa Gregory

    Philippa Gregory is an internationally renowned author of historical novels. She holds a PhD in eighteenth-century literature from the University of Edinburgh. Works that have been adapted for television include A Respectable Trade, The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool. The Other Boleyn Girl is now a major film, starring Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana. Philippa Gregory lives in the North of England with her family.

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    Reviews for The Other Boleyn Girl

    4/5

    4,746 ratings229 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This book was amazing! It was really long but it was just fantastic. The characters were beautifully portrayed in this historical European fiction about the royal families.
    • 4/5
      Rating: 3.75* of fiveNot bad...not bad at all...fast and loose with some details, speculations presented as facts, but it's a novel. The facts being pretty well known, I don't feel the need to recap them. Anne's character is quite modern for the day, but that's likely to be accurate. Anne was a schemer and her world was a bitterly competitive one. I wasn't in any way displeased by the more, shall we say, possessed of agency Anne; I was, however, extremely irked at Mary's characterization. History doesn't know much about her. Author Gregory uses this to give us a limp, depressed, lifeless blur of a girl. She is a damned soul, caught up in plots and schemes she doesn't understand or care about. It's hard to care about her.George is a major popinjay and utterly lacking in any depth or redeeming qualities. He exists to scheme and preen. So, of course, he's gay BUT possessed of a pash for Anne that enables him to so much as consider incest! What? Huh? It is impossible to know, at this distance in time, the truth of the sexual nature of anyone alive then. Identity constructs like gayness didn't exist then. People did what they did and, if one knew about it, one simply ignored it.I simply didn't want to be irked by a book, so I'm not giving it a better rating for its interpretations of historical figures as moderns in fancy dress. Because that's what it felt like she was doing.The 2008 film made of the book was very pretty, starred beautiful actors, had lots of swell excitement in chases and rapes and suchlike. I liked it well enough. I wasn't sad about watching it but wasn't blown away. I got the urge to read the book when I found the film on Netflix; I'm pretty sure that's backwards, but it's become a strong habit for me. I'm not inclined to believe that's wrong.
    • 4/5
      The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory I did like it (besides the fact that I can never seem to spell "Boleyn" right). For those who have no idea what it's about, it's written from the perspective of Mary Boleyn, Ann Boleyn's sister. It takes place during the reign of Henry VIII, so it's based on truth but with a fictionalized story interwoven. It is a story of one family's rise to power, and what they will do to get there.There were times when I had to push myself to keep reading, so it wasn't always engaging, but that is normal for any book that is over 600 pages. Most of it was very good, and if not good at least shocking.I was completely aghast and some of the things the characters did to get ahead. I cannot imagine being so ambitious and so hungry for power that you would use your children or anyone else to get what you want. The fact that most of them seemed so detached from their children was hard for me to grasp.So many of them just seemed crazed with power. Henry the VIII himself during the last half, but Ann Boleyn and most of her family wanted nothing more than to rise. I kept thinking to myself, " For what, you are incapable of being happy."The life of courtier is something that always seems so glamorous in movies, but after reading this novel it make me very happy for my "simple" life. I couldn't put up with all that pretense.I also found out there is now a movie coming out based on the book with Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson and Eric Bana. It looks good, but just from the trailer I can see they made a lot of changes from the book.Final Verdict- 4 out of 5 stars
    • 4/5
      Wow! This was a very engrossing read. I knew very little about this period of history and think I have a small grasp on events of that time.
      The characters were attention grabbing as was the story, which was wonderfully written.
    • 2/5
      Historical fiction just isn't my cup of tea, I guess. It read too much like a romance novel for my taste.
    • 5/5
      This Novel was my first taste of Ms.Gregory's superb works of historical fiction. The time is of Henry VIII, and his whirlwind courtship and marriage to Miss Anne Boleyn of France/England. Though this tale is more than that, it also tells of a family struggle, and how two sisters are torn apart through family ambition. With just the right amount of historical correctness this tale spins off into a highly likely explanation of one the world's greatest romances.
    • 5/5
      LOVE it!!!
    • 4/5
      LOVED. Absolutely, 100% adored this.
    • 5/5
      Great book! Quick read.
    • 5/5
      A great read!
    • 4/5
      The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory is a work of historical fiction, though the basis for the story is very real and true. Set within the court of Henry VIII, it is a story of his loves through the eyes of Mary Boleyn.The story itself was intriguing and page-turning, but altogether too long for my taste. The story could have been 200 pages shorter and still hit all of the main plot points. Some of the personality changes the characters go through are very quick and not explained thoroughly. The characters, however, are very young and could explain their wavering affections. Perhaps if I had read this from the eyes of a teenager it would have not bothered me as much. Regardless, I enjoyed the book and will likely read Gregory's companion novel, The Boleyn Inheritance.
    • 4/5
      Great storytelling. Rushed ending. Otherwise, I'd have given it 5 stars.
    • 5/5
      This was the first Tudor book I read and it quickly hooked me on Philippa Gregory, and, shortly, the Tudor era. Looking back after various fiction and nonfiction books I have read, this one is no where near historically accurate. But who said it was? Philippa Gregory is a historical FICTION novelist, and her works are just that- fiction. No, Anne didn't have an affair with her brother, her brother probably wasn't gay, and Mary was not the innocent girl they made her out to be. But that isn't the point of the novel. Gregory is a great storyteller and I can't wait to read more by her.
    • 4/5
      It moved a little slow for me at first, but once it picked up, I could hardly put it down. I always loved learning about the time period of the Boleyn girls in my college classes & enjoyed the movie about them as well. I will say I think I like the book better though.
    • 1/5
      Dreadful...
    • 4/5
      A really good read
    • 2/5
      I picked up this book because I was supposed to be reading Wolf Hall for book club. Turns out I'm not smart enough for Wolf Hall, so thought instead that I'd read something lighter from the same period. (I think Thomas Cromwell is mentioned once or twice in passing.) In the end, book club was cancelled due to flu, and my wading through 600 odd pages about a period I'm really not interested in has been a waste of time in that respect. I could have done with the condensed version of this -- maybe 300 pages would have been great. However, I know there are many readers who are very interested in this period of history, and who relish every last paragraph, comparing the fictionalised version to what is known by historians.I had a problem with the first person point of view, which was actually written in omniscient fashion, as if by Mary Boleyn as an older woman. When we're told that 'my face was white' I do wonder how on earth a first person narrator knows such a thing. The difficult thing about keeping this particular story suspenseful would have been the fact that any reader with the most rudimentary of historical knowledge knows what happened to Anne in the end, and so when it came down to her execution, there was no emotion there at all for me -- just a matter of going through the steps, because the book had to end just after it. The final 100 pages or so really did feel like drudgery.I'm not sure I buy the contradictory nature of George, and I'm not basing him on any notion of what he was really like, because I know nothing. It would be interesting to know how the relationship between these two sisters really was. This author paints it was rivalrous as well as close, but what it if were simply close? Stories about sisters without jealous rivalries are precious few. Rather than turn George into a homosexual who was nevertheless interested in incestuous relations with his sister, it would have been more shocking, perhaps, to depict a pair of sisters in fiction who were 100% allies.
    • 4/5
      VERY good book. A fascinating look into the behind-the-scenes world of kings, queens and courtiers.
    • 4/5
      This was a really enjoyable book. At times, all the maneuverings and machinations of the Boleyn/Howard clan became tedious and seemed as if Gregory were using it as forced drama in an already dramatic story, but it wasn't throughout the entire book and didn't take away from the story overmuch. What I really liked was that even though this is a work of fiction, Gregory pulled in A LOT of historical fact into the story which makes you believe that the entire story actually happened.
    • 1/5
      For being about such a complicated and intricate time and place, this book felt thin and restricted in terms of characters, plot development, and world. I realize the intention was to provide an intimate perspective, but it didn't work for me.
    • 5/5
      This book was full of drama and plenty of backstabbing. I found Anne and Mary's relationship to be the most interesting. These two sisters both hated and loved each other. I though George, the Boleyn brother, was another very interesting character. I found this book hard to put down and it kept me up late at night reading. I enjoyed every minute of this one and highly recommend it. But before reading this one, I do suggest reading Philippa Gregory's The Constant Princess which is about the Princess of Spain who later becomes Henry's wife. It's not necessary to read that one first, but I think it's nice to get the storyline behind Henry and Queen Katherine's marriage. The writing in The Other Boleyn Girl was great, the plot fantastic and the characters are well written. The story is narrated by Mary and you can't help but feel bad for her, she is thrown into a life of lies and deceit at an early age. You also wonder how she continues to put up with Anne and be loyal to her. I liked the dialouge between the three Boleyns; Anne, Mary and George. Just when you think the plot can't thicken, it does.
    • 3/5
      I learned much historically from the book but it was a bit too graphic for my tastes! I broke my rule about movie-watching - "always read the book first" - so I felt I had to read it after I watched the movie at Homewood. I liked the movie better, frankly, and that's rarely true for me.
    • 2/5
      I think it is a very sad story, and I am not sure I liked it.
    • 4/5
      This book came to my attention because of the forthcoming movie adaptation. The cover has Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johanssen and Eric Bana in period dress. The film will clearly not be lacking in eye candy.

      The book itself was flat for a long LONG stretch, then picks up near the midpoint and ends very strong. The first-person narration forces us to see the world (16th century England) through the eyes of Mary Boleyn, the other Boleyn girl Henry VIII, er, fell for. When the book opens she is 14, dumb, dull, naive and hapless. Twelve years go by before the final chapter and Mary is a lot more likeable by then. Unfortunately, the historical Mary Boleyn was nearly completely peripheral to the people and events that make this period so interesting, so besides hearing about, oh, the Battle of Pavia and the fall of Cardinal Wolsey (to name two events), you'll have to consult Wikipedia, because Mary has no clue about the big picture.

      The writing is good but not stellar. Phillipa Gregory doesn't display much flair with words, and her characters are ALL two-dimensional; they are not capable of surprising us, no matter how complex their historical counterparts were and the times they lived in. Occasionally some traces of modernity intrude into the story-telling, which is always annoying to historical fiction lovers.

      Overall I enjoyed this book, kind of like how I enjoy donuts. Part guilty pleasure, part cloying, part familiar and comforting. But not the kind of thing I want on my plate everyday.
    • 2/5
      I'm currently a little over half way done with this book, and it is just dragging on, and on. I don't know why, but it just does not hold my interest in the slightest bit. Maybe it's because I've seen the movie, before I read the book, and loved it. Maybe my expectations were too high. I though this would be more deceit, jealousy, anger, and betrayal. It lacks everything. The only reason I'm giving it 2 starts is because the beginning was good.
    • 5/5
      Lovely mix of history, romance and intrigue. Too bad the movie didn't do it justice.
    • 4/5
      fictional history - seems to be the only way I can remember history! I thought this was very fun and hard to put down.
    • 4/5
      The Angus and Robertson Top 100 (2006 - 2008) Book #92.The Other Boleyn Girl was a enjoyable read. Set around the life of Anne Boleyn and her involvement with King Henry the VIII. It has taken a famous couple in history and given it a bit of creative flare and style. I would be intrigued in reading other books by this author as a result of reading this book.
    • 3/5
      I don't know why I had it in my head this was going to be dense; it was a light, quick and entertaining read.
    • 5/5
      I love this book with a passion. It was my introduction to Philippa Gregory and I loved the story of Mary Boleyn and especially her relationship with William Stafford. This is one of those books that I've returned to many times despite my to read pile growing larger and larger.