"The Other Boleyn Girl"

AUTHOR: Philippa Gregory

PUBLISHED: 2004

GENRE: Historical Fiction

Among those that read her works, Philippa Gregory is the queen of British royal historical fiction.  (No pun intended.  Okay.  Pun intended a little bit.)  She has built an entire career out of mining the sordid and sinful history of England’s rulers.  The Other Boleyn Girl finally made her mainstream, when it was turned into an interesting but rushed movie staring Scarlet Johanssen as the title character, Mary Boleyn, and Natalie Portman as her more famous sister, Anne.  Much like Titantic, The Other Boleyn Girl is one of those stories where the outcome is well-known – even the most apathetic history student knows that Anne and her crown are swiftly parted.  So to make it interesting, Gregory had to change the point of view. 

Many of Gregory’s books use this method of narrating a famous event through the eyes of a lesser known participant.  In this case, the story of Anne Boleyn, the second of Henry VIII’s wives and the first to lose her head, is told through the eyes of her sister, Mary, who holds the distinction of being the original Boleyn girl to spend time in Henry’s bed, and of being the only Boleyn who knew when to walk away.  It is Mary who first catches the king’s eye, and it is Mary who had a royal, though illegitimate, boy.  (Or, in the parlance of the time, it is Henry who “gets a boy on her”, which is a strangely horrifying phrase.)  It is not until Mary goes into confinement to give birth that Anne is able begins her seduction.  Mary is swiftly replaced in Henry’s affections but not from courtly life, as she goes from mistress to the king to lady-in-waiting to the new queen.  From her new position, she had a front-row seat to her sister’s rise and fall. 

The easiest trap for Gregory to fall into is to let her more famous characters, like Anne and Henry, become one-sided.  Mary’s reticence to take part in her family’s machinations, her seemingly true love for Henry, her desire to get the hell away from court when things start going squirrelly – all serve as a bright contrast to Anne’s singular ambition.  Thankfully, it is a trap Gregory avoids.  Anne steals her sister’s lover away.  Their father sacrifices his daughters’ futures for his own wealth.  But they do it as full-boded characters with their own features and reasons.  It is for this reason that Mary’s proclamations to Henry that her sister is one half of her make sense, even after Anne has utterly betrayed her, humiliated her, and stolen her child.  Gregory may have switched the main focus, but she hasn’t forgotten her other characters in the process.

As with all historical fiction, there are questions as to accuracy, on both the micro and macro levels.  Recreating a private scene in a lady’s boudoir obviously takes some invention.  But with a story this old, even the most basic points – such as the birth order of the Boleyn children – can be uncertain.  Luckily, Gregory doesn’t let matters bog her, or the reader, down.  Her scenes are so smoothly painted that the reader becomes lost in the story, and whatever the History Channel might have to say about the subject ceases to matter.  All that matters is Mary and Anne.  You know the ax is coming, just like you know the ship is going to sink.  But it doesn’t stop you from reading. 

LENGTH: 672 pages, but they move quick.

MAINSTREAM OR NOT?: Once Scarlet Johanssen and Natalie Portman are involved, you’re officially big time.  But Gregory’s books still carry some of that bodice-ripper, Fabio-covered shame that most historical fiction brings to its reader.

SO, SHOULD I READ IT OR NOT?: Yes.  But skip the movie.  This is one of those cases where film does not trump paper.