The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn)
by Philippa Gregory
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Book Summary Information
Author: Philippa GregoryEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Deckle Edge
Published: 2004-11-16
ISBN: 0743256158
Number of pages: 448
Publisher: Touchstone
Book Reviews of The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn)
Book Review: superb: a novel to be savoured...
Summary: 5 Stars
Three pages into "The Virgin's Lover" and I suspected that I was onto a winner: I was right! With delicacy and ease, Philippa Gregory has once again penned another enthralling and beguiling tale, this time set during Elizabeth I's first year as queen, ably presenting all the political difficulties that the young queen and her advisors faced (at home and abroad) that first year, the forbidden love affair that developed between Elizabeth and her Master of Horse and childhood friend, Robert Dudley, and presenting us with her own idea as to how Amy Robsart, Robert's wife, died.
Robert Dudley always believed that he and his family were destined for greatness. But the past years, following the ill fated attempt to make Lady Jane Grey (the widow of Edward VI) queen and her second husband, Guilford Dudley, king, have been hard ones for the surviving Dudleys -- Robert in particular. For an ambitious man, used to power and court life, being stripped of his titles, land and wealth, has been particularly unbearable. And he is also beginning to realise that his choice of wife, the slightly older, uneducated and totally unambitious Amy Robsart, may have been a disastrous one. And then in 1558, Queen Mary dies without issue, and names her half-sister, Elizabeth as heir to the throne. For Robert, this means only one thing: his star is on the rise again. As he quickly settles into life at court again, he begins to realise that the new queen, his childhood friend, needs guidance in a great many things, guidance he is only to happy to give much to the dismay of Elizabeth's other advisors. William Cecil in particular. Cecil is at his wit's end as to how to thwart Robert's influence over the queen which seems to grow each day. Worse, Cecil is beginning to suspect that the queen has fallen in love with the strikingly handsome and debonair Dudley. Fortunately Dudley is already married, so that Cecil doesn't have to face the awful possibility that Elizabeth will demand that she be allowed to marry Dudley. But what Cecil doesn't know is that Robert Dudley has already began to think about putting his wife aside so that he can marry the queen. A task easily accomplished now that Elizabeth is head governor of the Church of England. Will Robert get his way? Will Elizabeth help him achieve his dream of kingship? And what will happen to Amy Robsart? As the country already bankrupt by the previous queen teeters between war and scandal, Elizabeth and Dudley continue their mad dance that could spell the end of the Tudor reign over England...
For me, "The Virgin's Lover" proved to be as wonderful a read as "The Other Boleyn Girl." Historically speaking everything covered in "The Virgin's Lover" is old ground -- nothing earth-shatteringly new revealed is revealed in this novel. But what makes "The Virgin's Lover" a fantastic and completely absorbing read is how the author brings characters and events to life. Vividly and grimly, Ms Gregory conveys what a young man used to wielding power must have felt when faced with ruin and low fortune, after his father's execution and the loss of all his wealth. Accurately she paints the ruthless Dudley need to succeed and his ache for power; and poignantly she paints the unhappy marriage of Amy Robsart, a young unambitous and uneducated woman, married and still in love with a younger man who no longer feels anything but irritation for her. Also nicely done is manner in which she presents, as a background, a country torn apart by religious wrangling and poverty, and titillated by the latest royal scandal. As soon as I saw "The Virgin's Lover" on the shelving cart, I knew that I had to read the book at once. From the first page to the last, Philippa Gregory held me captive. "The Virgin's Lover" was a fantastic read, and one that I cannot recommend highly enough.
Summary of The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn)
In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen. One woman hears the tidings with utter dread. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabeth's ambitious leap to the throne will pull her husband back to the very center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be. Amy had hoped that the merciless ambitions of the Dudley family had died on Tower Green when Robert's father was beheaded and his sons shamed; but the peal of bells she hears is his summons once more to power, intrigue, and a passionate love affair with the young queen. Can Amy's steadfast faith in him, her constant love, and the home she wants to make for them in the heart of the English countryside compete with the allure of the new queen?Elizabeth's excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country, riven by enmity, where treason is normal and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisor William Cecil warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the irresistible, ambitious Robert Dudley.
Robert revels in the opportunities of the new reign. The son of an aristocratic family brought up in palaces as the equal of his royal playmates, Robert knows he can reclaim his destiny at Elizabeth's side. Elizabeth cannot resist his courtship, and as the young couple slowly falls in love, Robert starts to think the impossible: can he set aside his wife and marry the young queen?
Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover answers the question about an unsolved crime that has fascinated detectives and historians for centuries. Philippa Gregory uses documents and evidence from the Tudor era and, with almost magical insight into the desires of Robert Dudley and his lovers, paints a picture of a country on the brink of greatness, a young woman grasping at her power, a young man whose ambition is greater than his means, and the wife who cannot forgive them.
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