The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn) | Philippa Gregory

The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn) | Philippa Gregory | Unputtdownable despite it's flaws

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The Queen's Fool: ...

	The Queen's Fool: A Novel (Boleyn) Philippa Gregory Touchstone, 2004 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 203 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Excellent Purchase!

Excellent purchase. Book arrived promptly and in excellent condition. Pleasure doing business with seller. Thank you!

Unputtdownable despite it's flaws

This is the story of a young girl, Hannah Green, from a Jewish family that hides their identity to escape persecution while secretly holding on to their faith and nationhood.
Hannah and her father have come from Spain, where Hannah's mother was burned as one of the thousands of innocent victims of the Spanish Inquisition.
Hannah has the gift of a seer. She is dressed as a boy in order to protect her, and soon comes to the attention of Lord Robert Dudley, who recruits her to the court of Queen Mary I of England as a 'fool'', but whose real task is as a spy. In the meantime Hannah is betrothed to Daniel, from an old Jewish family.
She soon comes to love the Queen, which is a puzzle, as it was Bloody Mary who brought the Spanish Inquisition to England. The author's rewrite of history by her over-sympathetic portrayal of Queen Mary and her unflattering portrayal of Queen Elizabeth does not sit well with me.
How can one sympathetically portray the Queen who burned thousands in order to force Roman Catholicism back onto England. And how can Hannah have been so devoted to the ruler who brought the brutal inquisition to England, after Hannah's mother was butchered by these same 16th century terrorists of Mary's ilk.
It was Elizabeth who freed England from Mary's terror and was one of England's greatest rulers ever. Elizabeth presided over a golden age of peace, prosperity and culture.
In fact history reveals that it was Mary who was utterly ruthless and had plnned to have Elizabeth killed, while Elizabeth had both judgement and the quality of mercy.
It will not do to present Elizabeth as a scheming harlot. The author go's out of her way to explore the depth of Mary's character but does not do the same for Elizabeth.
The author was also insufficiently sympathetic to Elizabeth, involving her seduction and exploitation by Thomas Seymour, when she was fourteen.

Hannah comes across as intriguing, attractive, like-able and interesting. The element of the crypto-Jews or 'marannos' is of great interest to me.
The book is a real page turner and fabulously written, despite the flaws I have highlighted.

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Good Book!

This is a really good book. Drags a bit in the middle but had a great ending and cant wait to read the next one!

A great read!

In The Queen's Fool, Philippa Gregory continues the story of Henry VIII's legacy in this book centered around the difficult reign of his eldest daughter Mary. While reading the previous 3 books is not a necessity, it will help the reader to understand the motivations and complicated relationships of the lead characters.

An interesting historical novel, despite the farfetched narrator

The best thing about this book was the way that she was able to treat both Elizabeth I and Mary Tudor as sympathetic and likeable characters, even as they are volleying for the throne. It was an interesting read, with some rather unbelievable aspects, including the character of the narrator and her relationship with her husband.

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