by T. Lucas

Created on: October 26, 2009

The Other Boleyn Girl, by Phillippa Gregory, is the story of the Boleyn family's rise and fall in the court of King Henry VIII, focusing in on the personal lives of the three Boleyn children: Anne, George, and Mary, all from the first person narrative of Mary Boleyn. The beginning of the book details the romance of Mary and King Henry. She is a young girl, now out of the shadow of her older, more cunning sister, Anne, and finally someone other than "the other Boleyn girl." She has the favor of the king of England. She loves him as a man, and not only a king. She is conflicted, as she also loves and cares for Queen Catharine, whom she serves as a lady in waiting. She gives Henry children; she gives up her life, and her husband for him. Of course, she does not have a choice, as women did not in her time, and in her position. The men in her family gain wealth, and power, and Mary asks for nothing in return.

However, when the tides of the kingdom turn, and Henry is rumored to be seeking divorce from Catharine, the Howard and Boleyn men want one of their girls on the throne. A Boleyn girl. By this time in the story, Mary has been with the king for years, gaining nothing, but losing much. She is almost relieved when Anne is chosen by the leaders of the family to push Mary aside and seduce the king. The rest of the book is a gripping account of Anne Boleyn's rise as queen of England. Gregory gives us the fantastic tale of Anne's hunger for personal power, her struggle to be loved by the people and accepted as queen, and her relentless ambition that would be her undoing. The brilliance of the style of writing in this book is the way that the rival sisters both take their turns being "the other Boleyn girl." We are forced to take out turns loving and hating the characters. Our author brings us to despise Anne for her abuse of Mary and love of power, to feeling panic when the king begins to lose interest in her, and then to tears when she is cruelly and unjustly executed.

The delightful gem of this book was Mary's third and last husband, a sweet, poor farmer who we would all like to end up with at the end of the day. He is strong and steady in Mary's chaotic world. He is the perfect reward to Mary's life of hardship, and one falls harder for him than any other character in the book.

This was a detailed book, but one well worth sticking with. Phillippa Gregory is painstakingly accurate in her historical account, yet weaves the story in just the right way so as to make us imagine our own conclusions to the things history does not reveal, such as Anne and George Boleyn's alleged incestuous affair. Fact and fiction are so well knit, you would like to believe that every word of this novel is fact. An excellent read!

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