The Boleyn Inheritance

Philippa Gregory

ISBN 10: 0007230486 ISBN 13: 9780007230488

Publisher: HarperCollins Audiobooks, 2006

Synopsis

The author of The Other Boleyn Girl (2002) returns to the executed queen's doomed family in a historical novel that maps the sad demise of Henry VIII in a series of intimate personal testimonies.

Gregory's tale of greed and revenge takes place against the short, unhappy tenures of Henry's fourth and fifth wives. Jockeying for position close to the throne, three powerful, ambitious women collide. The author skillfully allows each character to tell her side of the story in her own words. The first voice we hear belongs to 30-year-old Jane Boleyn, widowed sister-in-law to Anne. Jane's husband George was implicated in his sister's alleged infidelities and went with her to the scaffold in 1533; his calculating wife moved to save her inheritance rather than her husband and six years later is still scheming. Next up is Anne of Cleves, soon to be Queen Number Four, a provincial, German-speaking Protestant princess chosen by Henry's advisor, Thomas Cromwell, as a politically suitable alliance to keep Spain and France at bay. Badgered and bullied all her life by her brother and mother, 24-year-old Anne wants nothing more than to escape Cleves and have a meaningful life. The third voice belongs to Katherine Howard, a pretty, 15-year-old cousin of the dead Anne Boleyn and an incorrigible flirt who is brought to court as a lady-in-waiting by her conniving, powerful uncle, the Duke of Norfolk. Also summoned to court to attend the new queen, Jane begins plotting behind the scenes with Norfolk to assure Anne of Cleve's hasty fall and Katherine's quick ascent in Henry's favor. Gregory's knowledge of the period, combined with her novelistic skill, allows her to view this grim tale through the eyes of the three women: wily, experienced Jane; nave, sensible Anne; and vain, greedy young Kitty. Their first-person accounts are convincing and shockingly self-serving.

About this title

About the Author

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.

From AudioFile

King Henry VIII, fat, ill, and suspicious of everyone, still desires their attention and love. Alternating diary entries of Jane Boleyn (sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn), Anne of Cleves, and Katherine Howard describe the king and life in court, including the many potential political pitfalls. Dagmara Dominczyk brings the conniving Jane Boleyn to life, showing first her determination to spy for the Duke of Norfolk, then her attempts to disentangle herself from deceit. Bianca Amato characterizes Anne of Cleves as a nave woman with a soft German accent who bows to everyones demands. Ruthie Henshall portrays Katherine Howard, the empty-headed teenager who counts her good luck AND her dresses as she becomes Henrys lover, then his wife. As Gregory depicts the three women, the narrators entice listeners to follow each one to the end of her tangled story. M.B.K. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins Audiobooks
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0007230486
• ISBN 13: 9780007230488
• Binding: Audio CD
• Number of pages: 4