To juli312

Thanks, macy24. Looking forward to reading it.

Amazon.co.uk
The bitter enmity between Elizabeth the First and Mary Tudor, the daughters of Henry VIII (not to mention the conflict between their mothers Anne Boleyn and Katherine of Aragon) makes the squabbles between modern-day royals seem small beer indeed. This is particularly clear after reading something as enjoyable as Philippa Gregory's The Queen's Fool, which treats the period and its turbulent sweep with an almost operatic grandeur.

Mary and Elizabeth, the two young princesses, have a common goal: to be Queen of England. To achieve this, they need both to win the love of the people and learn how to negotiate dangerous political pitfalls. Gregory recreates this era with tremendous colour, and she makes the court an enticing but danger-fraught place. Into this setting comes the eponymous fool, the youthful Hannah, who (despite her air of guileless religiousness) is not naive. She soon finds herself having to deal with the beguiling but treacherous Robert Dudley. Dispatched to report on Princess Mary, Hannah discovers in her a passionate religious conviction (to return England to the rule of Rome and its pope) that will have fatal consequences.

Thanks,macy24

das Buch steht nun im Bücherregal und wartet auf neue Leser...

I took it from the OBCZ on request of my mother but as it looks interesting I think I will read it as well. My mother promised to also give her opinion.

I found this to be an interesting book especially in respect to the historical aspect. I don´t know much about the Elizabethian England, so I can´t tell whether history continued as hopeful as in this book. Anyway I was surprised by the negative image that is conveyed of Elizabeth. I saw the movie “Elizabeth” some years back and in this one she is cleary more positive if I remember right. What I thought about her oath to keep England in the true faith was that for her the true faith can also mean “Protestant.”

In the caracters of the other persons there were some things that amazed me. The number one on my list of amazing things is Daniel´s patience with Hannah. Number two is that Hannah´s father suffered her to make him leave Daniel´s house. I could understand Hannah´s wish to get away but I wondered why her father gave in that easily.
Hannah herself is a person I can´t quite fathom. Somehow she seems cruel, then faithful again, at once innocent and willingly closing her eyes to what she is doing.
This book at least showed my how hard it can be to make out who is good or right. In this book there is hardly a black or white caracter but they are all somewhat muddled up. I guess so it was in true history as well, so this is a huge bonus point for this book.

This is my mother´s commentary

England 1548 , King Henry VIII is dead and his children and heirs to the English throne face life-threatening surroundings, wherein the son Edward dies young of illness and, as hinted, willfull neglection, and his daughters Mary and Elisabeth, the later Elizabeth I, fight, one after the other, for the throne, her personal survival and their very different visions of how they want the English people to live their lives: - the strict, unbending catholic way of living according to the demands of the Inquisition or the protestant way, allowing more freedom. It is a very interesting plot to introduce the person of “the queens fool” and to create with this an unoffensive character who is able to contact, befriend or become a confidant of all – of Edward, Mary, Elizabeth and their opponents and to tell their stories in the course of the historical events and additionally give a view on the fate of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish people.

An entertaining book for peoplo who love historical novels.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left in the OBCZ

I found the book at the windowsill. I will read it as soon as i have finished the other book. :)

CAUGHT IN BERNAU BRANDENBURG GERMANY

upsi ... ich bin ja gar nicht angemeldet gewesen! das buch ist jetzt jedenfalls bei mir - einem echten crosser - und wird nach dem lesen auch wieder ordentlich frei gelassen! ;)

i've read a few books which dealt with the tudor dynasty before and i'm not very impressed by this one.
the story spans the period from king edward's early death (summer 1553) to queen mary's death in winter 1558. the reader gains an insight into the tensed relationship between mary and her half-sister elizabeth; as narrator acts a jewish teenager named hannah verde, who serves both women and lord robert dudley.

here are my critical comments:
- mrs. gregory reiterates too often
- the main character is much too plain to be completely believable
- using a girl with "the sight" to tell a historical story is pretty shallow
- hannah is by far too pseudo-emancipated (it was absolutely necessary to create a character like daniel)

the book is an EASY READ but i truly hope people don't forget to read real books - i.e. history books - to understand what happened at the "tudor court".

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the books is available. if nobody wants it until the end of may i'm going to take it to denmark.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

well, we'll see ---

*edit*

i released the book in the "daglig'brugsen" sundby supermarket at the lottery table near the entrance.