Selina (bloodbeat) wrote in book_recs, @ 2008-04-26 22:46:00 |
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Current music: | More Than This / Roxy Music |
I'd like to rec something that seems a bit out of the norm.
The book is called Brief Gaudy Hour, and it's by Margaret Campbell Barnes. It's about the life of Anne Boleyn, the most infamous of Henry VIII's six wives.
It was written in the 1940s, before some of the more definitive Boleyn biographies were written. However, don't let that turn you away from reading the book if you're a fan of Tudor history.
The author manages to make Anne, who has never been the most well-thought-of one of Henry's wives, into someone who is both sympathetic and tragic. Yet the author also doesn't sugar-coat Anne's burning ambition; she's presented as having all the faults and flaws that she's known for, but still comes off as a likable woman.
I was also impressed with the way that the author really seemed to dig into Anne's personality; she's seen as a multifaceted person, and the book nicely balances her bad side (overambition) with the good (her love of music and literature, and her patronage of the arts).
It's only recently come back into print, after being unavailable since the 1980s, and when I found out that it was back in print I immediately went to Barnes & Noble for a copy. If you're into Tudor history, it's well worth having in your collection. A classic of its kind.