Our 'Enry tells it like it was
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Henry VIII reigned for 38 years. At times, I feared it would take me that long to get through this very long novel. But having reached the end, I'm glad I persevered.
Margaret George has provided an interesting account of this infamous monarch's life. By using the device of a first-person, autobiographical narrative, George gives us a sense of the many difficulties and weighty responsibilities of being an Absolute Monarch. Overall, Henry is shown as a product of his time; he may have over used the lopping off other peoples' heads option, but we see that a heart of stone may have been a prerequisite to be a successful Tudor monarch.
By the standards of much historical fiction, this book seems well-researched and would make a good springboard to find out more about the period and its leading players. It's certainly an antidote to the TV series `The Tudors' which jiggles dates and events around all over the place, albeit in the name of entertainment.
Perhaps this novel could have been shorter, but then again Henry's life was certainly eventful. Not a particularly likeable fellow, but a story told from a unique perspective. Overall, a recommended read.
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An unstoppable alternative viewpoint
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This book was loaned to me by a friend and I liked it so much, I bought my own copy so I could read it again. It is the first book I really read about Henry VIII and I was not disappointed. Henry's life and times are brought to life in amazing detail and this book does offer an alternative view on Henry's personality and motivations. At times it can be a tiny bit laborious (particularly between Katherine and Aragon and Anne Boleyn, I wanted it to hurry along), but the detail is necessary for the full story. Motivated me to read many more books about the Tudors.
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Overlong & Disappointing
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I was keen to get my teeth into this book as I much enjoyed Margret George's fictional biographies of Cleopatra & Helen of Troy. She has a very easy writing style, combined with some believable historical detail and therefore a good read if you are interested in historical fiction. Even better its over 800 pages long so I sat down in the armchair and looked forward to spending some time with this book. The first 200 pages or so went well, the character development of the young Henry, combined with historical detail combined with a great story kept me engaged. Its a personal rather than a political book and I felt where it worked best was the home front - some of the political machinations are not clear and I found them rather confusing. To deal with the politics the book is interspersed with notations from the King's fool Will Somers, these add little to the story but are there to fill in background. I personally didn't like this structure as the information was never enough and all it did was gave me an understanding that Henry was a complex, intelligent man living in an age of great change but the reasons for that change where not clear from reading this book.
The transition from second son to king and his relationship with Catherine of Aragon are well fleshed out and take up around 300 pages. This I found by far the most effective part of the novel, its interesting, keeps the attention and the characters are believable. However, I felt that once we arrive at Anne Boleyn the novel lost its way perhaps because the personal and political life Henry at this point became the same thing. The author does not convey the religious turmoil in society and Anne's downfall is explained away by one day Henry looking at her across the room and deciding shes a witch and has to be killed. The reasons were surely more complex, and this for me, was the beginning of the end of the success of this novel as we start to loose context as to his motives and changes within him. Its clear from history that he became increasingly irrational and unpredictable but this is not clear from the genial chap in this book. So as the background to his decisions became fuzzy I became bored and skip read the last 200 pages or so of beheadings and betrayals and wished that it had been half the length it was.
So, in summary this book is typical Margret George if you like her books you will in all likelihood like this one, however, I found it disappointing perhaps because the subject matter was just too vaste for her to cover effectively.
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Fantastic
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I have read this book countless times and I think it is one of my favourites.
The indepth portrayal into Henry's world through his eyes, amkes you see the real man, behind the tales and court rumours
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Lovely, Lovely Book!!
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Absolutely fascinating - a blend of sound historical facts & well blended fiction knitted together in this excellent read. I have a great love of this particular period in history and, of course, this brings it to vibrating life, sometimes through Henry's eyes and sometimes through the eyes of his Fool. All George's books are good but this is definitely one of her best.
Read it - I'm sure you'll love it.
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