The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn) by Philippa Gregory
|
List Price: Our Price: $3.48 You Save: $12.52 (78%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Virgin's Lover (Boleyn)
Book Review: reveals the stirring, emotional struggle of the new Queen Elizabeth I; a forbidden love affair and remorseless treachery. BCM
Summary: 4 Stars
The Virgin's Lover is a really interesting take on the romantic entanglement between the devastatingly handsome, Robert Dudley and Queen Elizabeth I. I enjoyed this story because it showed me how naïve a young Queen can be; how her fallibility and her weakness against the lustful pulls of the flesh could lead to a loss of power and control.
As the new Queen comes to power, the married Robert Dudley comes racing to be at Elizabeth's side, as her favourite and as a passionate and all-consuming lover. By charming and seducing the Queen, Robert believes he will have control over the throne of England. Lady Dudley, Robert Dudley's wife, is such a wonderfully morose character until her husband is near, when she shines like a beacon of unrequited love and hope. You can not help but feel badly for her state of affairs.
The story has wonderful flow and the plot is well written and well timed. The characters and their personalities are very carefully carried through from one novel to another. I love Philippa's writing as she moulds and shapes the characters, developing and changing them because of their experiences and interactions. Some of the great highs and lows that the characters feel are often mirrored by my own emotions as I cheer for the victory of some and dearly wish for a humbling fall, for others.
I highly recommend this book!
(8 out of 10 Diamonds) - Thoroughly enjoyed it
© 2008-2009 Bobbie Crawford-McCoy (Book Reviews By Bobbie).
All rights reserved.
Book Review: An interesting perspective and an absorbing read
Summary: 4 Stars
The first three years of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Calais is lost. The Catholic Queen Mary is dead and the Protestant Elizabeth will not have "Popish idolatry" in the churches of England or her people pray to anyone but God.
Without dwelling heavily on religion or politics the author still manages to clarify exactly what was happening in the country and the political worries that the Queen and her advisor's had.
The Queen herself is portrayed as fun loving, proud and stubborn yet also unsure and worry ridden with a habit of pushing her cuticles back nervously and making her fingers sore. Very different to the strong, almost masculine Elizabeth that we've often been led to believe she was like. Marriage is discussed as a move to make England more secure and to these ends the Queen flirts with various prospective husbands yet promises herself to none.
Gregory also captures the tranquility of the countryside and the more simplified living of country folk as we follow Amy's story; Her pain and her pride as well as her loyalty and hope that Lord Dudley will come home to her and that the rumours from court of the frivolities and obvious passion between Elizabeth and her childhood friend Robert Dudley...Amy's husband...will subside.
I really liked this interpretation of what might have happened between Robert and his wife...and Robert and the Queen, especially as (explained in the Author's note at the end of the book) speculation into the death that occurs, was never resolved!
Book Review: A quandry of a book
Summary: 4 Stars
I have to admit that this was my first Gregory novel. I plan on reading the two other novels in this "trilogy" of sorts. When I first approached this particular novel, however, I was worried that it would read like other weighty historical novels, like Margaret George's Henry VIII. However, as I got further into the novel, it picked up speed.
Now, I do agree with many of the other reviewers regarding Dudley and Elizabeth. This novel offered an alternate view of Dudley and Elizabeth as star crossed lovers and truly worked over my conception of these two historical figures. Having read and reviewed Elizabeth and Mary, by Jane Dunn, I had an expectation as to how Elizabeth would be portrayed. I was shocked to see her caterwalling to any man that would listen. However, I was also shocked to see this portrayal of Dudley as super manipulative and only out for himself (although his rational is worked out very well). The ending comes as no suprise to any student of history, but it is unsettling in the least.
While some of the reviewers expressed disagreement with the ending and Elizabeth's attitude, I think that Gregory did a great job with the cliffhanger ending. Go back through the book when you are finished and rethink it. Do we really know Elizabeth's mind like we do Cecil's and Dudley's. Had she been planning this all along? It is a confounding book and it makes you rethink a lot of things you had assumed in reading.
Book Review: An Inside Look into Elizabeth I's Court
Summary: 4 Stars
Philippa Gregory's third novel on the Tudors focuses on Elizabeth I's accession to the throne and her youthful romance with Robert Dudley, the Earl of Liecester.
In The Virgin's Lover readers are placed into the minds of Elizabth, Dudley, William Cecil-Elizabeth's chief advisor, and Amy Robsart-Dudley's first wife. This gives a well-rounded view of Elizabeth's first few tumultuous years on the throne.
All in all a very wonderful glimpse into Tudor court life. One negative is that Gregory writes Elizabeth as very indecisive and easily dominated, especially by Dudley; with this it leaves one to wonder how she became the much adored "Gloriana".
However, a page turner. Gregory uses her own conclusions as to who killed Amy Robsart, the planned assasination of Mary of Guise, and whether Elizabeth and Robert actually consummated their relationship; in true history the actual answer is not known.
Book Review: An Elizabethan Tug of War
Summary: 4 Stars
I love Philippa Gregory's Tudor novels and am only sorry that I have now concluded reading all of them. This one has some problems that disappointed me - Elizabeth is a giggling, easily-led dope, and not the shrewd manipulator and politician that we know her to be from historical record. I suspect Dudley and Cecil are fairly accurately represented, however, and I was very interested in the viewpoint of Amy Dudley, the innocent wife cast aside in favor of power and the title of King.
This was an interesting read, and one that kept me turning the pages, but it was not up to the standard of the other Tudor books. I preferred Boleyn Inheritance and The Constant Princess for intrigue. I hope for better things in the future.