Type of bind: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: November 16, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 163199
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Sumptuous historical novel from bestselling author of THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL and THE QUEEN'S FOOL Elizabeth I has acceded to the throne of England, a position she has waited and schemed for all her life. She is surrounded by advisers, all convinced that they know what would be best for the country and certain that a young woman cannot form political judgements. Elizabeth feels that she can rely on just one man: her oldest friend, Robert Dudley. It is soon plain that he is more than merely a friend. In a house in the countryside waits a very different woman, Amy Robsart -- Robert's wife. She has no taste for life at court and longs for the day when her husband will return home and attend to his family. She has loved him since she was a girl, but now they are adults she hardly sees him. Meanwhile, the pressure grows for Elizabeth to marry, for it is unthinkable that a queen should rule on her own. Elizabeth's preference is clear, but he is unavailable. But what if the unthinkable were to happen...Philippa Gregory blends passion, personalities and politics in this stunning novel of the Tudor court and a country divided.
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Rated by buyers 
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I hate to say this, but I did NOT like this book. I suppose it's a must read if one is interested in following the whole Boleyn story, but this book is not as good as the other works of Gregory's I have read. I wouldn't call it a waste of time, but it's taken me forever to get through a simple 400 page book. I kept trying to chalk it off to the story itself not being as riveting as the other books, but for whatever reason, I didn't like it.
The only thing I liked was when Gregory flipped from the passion of Elizabeth and Lord Dudley to the dismal life of the cheated on wife, Amy, in some kind of parallel universe.
I'd recommend this book only for those who wish for the continuity of the Boleyn saga. But then, so many books, so little time......
Rated by buyers 
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I was given The Other Boleyn Girl as a gift and devoured it. Since then I have read every other book in the Tudor series. I am patiently awaiting her new book which is to hit the shelves in September. She is one of those authors who makes you not want the book to end. And her talent is consistent in every book. I highly recommend this book to any one who wants history to come alive not just remain a lot of names and dates.
Rated by buyers -
I just discovered this author and love her work. So far I've purchased and read five of her books. Have thoroughly enjoyed all of them.
Rated by buyers -
Virgin's Lover / 0-7432-6926-8
I really cannot understand why Gregory books seem to be so hit-or-miss. The Constant Princess was wonderful - great history, great story. The Other Boleyn Girl was, well, it was poor history but a decent story, and that's really all that matters. The Virgin's Lover isn't even a good story, and I really cannot understand why.
The story ostensibly centers around Amy Robsart, Robert Dudley's wife. Amy is distressed that her husband, upon Elizabeth's recent rise to the throne, now has a place at the palace in the new queen's court. This upsets her because, in typical Gregory fashion, the political marriage between Amy and Robert is really a romantic marriage between two lovers. However, we have to take Gregory's word on this matter - the two 'lovers' are invariably nasty and cruel to each other, with Robert being unforgivably distant (he does not even send a message when he is absent over Christmas) and Amy being petty, childish, and nagging (telling him that a dream of his father's death is an omen to stay out of battle - as though Robert has a choice in the matter - and greeting him smugly after the battle when his brother has just died). Amy also invariably prays for the death of Queen Elizabeth when it would be far more realistic for her to pray for the death of her callous husband - and we are told that Robert abandoned Amy long before Elizabeth came to the throne, so this animosity towards Elizabeth is deeply confusing, at best. With these strokes, Gregory has managed to give us two characters who are totally unsympathetic, with the end result that we do not particularly care about Amy's abandonment (we would abandon her, too) nor do we care about Robert's infidelity (we would know better than to love someone so worthless).
With the "main" characters thus rendered meaningless, all we have left is Elizabeth. This is where the novel's flaws show most badly - Elizabeth has been reduced to a silly, vacillating, pleasure-seeking, childish girl who is barely capable of making the slightest decision. She throws a very un-regal temper tantrum during her very first royal mass, and leaves the pieces for the shrewd Dudley and Cecil to pick up for her. In fact, she manages to leave ALL the affairs of state to the two men, since the affairs of state are dreadfully dull and she is just a winsome 25 year old girl without a serious thought in her silly head. Until the subsequent page, when we are told solemnly by Gregory that Elizabeth's long years of imprisonment and uncertainty seasoned and aged her and made her fit to rule. And yet, we turn the page, and there is stupid, childish Elizabeth again, because the plot demands that she be so. Honestly, if I didn't know the author better, I would assume that the writer had serious issues against women, that's how badly Elizabeth is portrayed here, and the characterization of her as a stupid promiscuous idiot flies in the face of all historical fact about the woman.
Which brings us to another major flaw in Gregory's writing here - 99 times out of a hundred in this book, she TELLS rather than SHOWS. A good author shows a characters emotions, reactions, conversations, and so on and the reader can intuit from these glimpses that the character is immature or childish or wise or altruistic or any number of character traits. Instead, Gregory just goes the lazy route and tells us "Elizabeth is this," or "Elizabeth is that," and thus is all subtlety lost completely. Paragraphs are written in this sort of style: "Dudley handled all the coronation details, because Elizabeth did not care how the coronation was planned, only that everything be perfect. Elizabeth never cared about the how or why - she was a player on a stage and she only demanded that the other actors play their parts perfectly." Well, that's certainly VERY compelling writing, except that it isn't. Good literature is not written this way. The same point could have come across much more memorably if Gregory had fabricated a conversation where Dudley tried to involve Elizabeth in the ceremonies and she reacted coolly with disinterest. This would have given us some insight into Elizabeth without having to simply memorize what Gregory tells us.
I really cannot recommend this book. Obviously, it has struck a tone with some readers and perhaps you will enjoy it, but I would recommend looking for it at the library before buying a copy. I felt that the history was bad, the writing was dull, the characters were irritating and uninteresting, and the story was lacking any kind of drama or interest.
Rated by buyers 
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What a disappointment this book was. The author portrays Elizabeth as a mindless pawn in the hands of the traiterous Robert Dudley. Anyone who has done much reading about Queen Elizabeth I knows that she was a brilliant linguist and astute politician and was extrememly wise in her choice of advisors. No one put words or ideas in her head that were not her own. To portray her as an emptly headed, mindless individual with no thought beyond what Robert Dudley wanted does a great disservice to one of the most successful and brilliant historical figures ever. She was way ahead of her times in her thoughts on politics and religion. I would not have finished the book except I was hoping to see some redemption somewhere in the final pages. Shame on you Phillipa Gregory for your unfounded and false portrayal of Elizabeth.
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