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Synopsis

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her familys ambitious plots as the kings interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.

A rich and compelling tale of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, The Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her own heart.

Publishers Weekly

Sisterly rivalry is the basis of this fresh, wonderfully vivid retelling of the story of Anne Boleyn. Anne, her sister Mary and their brother George are all brought to the king's court at a young age, as players in their uncle's plans to advance the family's fortunes. Mary, the sweet, blond sister, wins King Henry VIII's favor when she is barely 14 and already married to one of his courtiers. Their affair lasts several years, and she gives Henry a daughter and a son. But her dark, clever, scheming sister, Anne, insinuates herself into Henry's graces, styling herself as his adviser and confidant. Soon she displaces Mary as his lover and begins her machinations to rid him of his wife, Katherine of Aragon. This is only the beginning of the intrigue that Gregory so handily chronicles, capturing beautifully the mingled hate and nearly incestuous love Anne, Mary and George ("kin and enemies all at once") feel for each other and the toll their family's ambition takes on them. Mary, the story's narrator, is the most sympathetic of the siblings, but even she is twisted by the demands of power and status; charming George, an able plotter, finally brings disaster on his own head by falling in love with a male courtier. Anne, most tormented of all, is ruthless in her drive to become queen, and then to give Henry a male heir. Rather than settling for a picturesque rendering of court life, Gregory conveys its claustrophobic, all-consuming nature with consummate skill. In the end, Anne's famous, tragic end is offset by Mary's happier fate, but the self-defeating folly of the quest for power lingers longest in the reader's mind. (June 4) Forecast: Lovers of historical romances heavy on the history will relish this new entry from Gregory and perhaps propel it onto bestseller lists this summer. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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Biography

Philippa Gregory has been penning compelling works of dramatic historical fiction since the mid-1980s, breaking out with the bestselling Wideacre trilogy and creating a buzz with The Other Boleyn Girl. As fellow author Peter Ackroyd once said of her, "She writes from instinct, not out of calculation, and it shows."

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Customer Reviews

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Awesomeby JustMe56993

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June 23, 2009: I had been obsessed with Tudor history for a few years prior to reading this novel. I own the movie cover version. The bright green cover caught my attention, and I read the sample chapter and was hooked. I bought it a week later. The Other Boleyn girl is simply an enthralling tale that capture's your mind and heart. It's surprisingly accurate historically. You can feel all of the passion behind the characters. They're relatable, though you may not agree with them. You really become attached to them, I probably read this book more than twice a month, and i STILL cry at the end.

Wonderful, simply wonderful.

My Favorite Novelby Anonymous

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June 19, 2009: This novel introduced me to Tudor history and I became obsessed with it. Anyways, the novel is really unique because how smart is it to write about the mistress of Henry VIII who happend to be the sister of his wife? Very smart Philippa Gregory. I wish i could've thought of that. It is well written, with smart choice of words. They matched the characters well. Some say that there is a lack of history but the novel is historical FICTION. The novel is really suspensing if you don't know a lot about the Boleyn sisters. You could read this over and over again so buy it!

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Fact File

Name:
Philippa Gregory

Current Home:
Hartlepool, England

Date of Birth:
January 09, 1954

Place of Birth:
Nairobi, Kenya, East Africa

Education:
B.A. in history, Sussex University, 1982; Ph.D., 18th-century popular fiction, Edinburgh, 1984

Awards:
BAFTA nomination for screenplay of A Respectable Trade, 1998; Feminist Book Fortnight Award, 1990; Romantic Novelist of the Year Award, 2002

Biography

Philippa Gregory, author of the bestselling Wideacre trilogy and other celebrated historical novels, holds a B.A. in history and a Ph.D. in 18th-century literature. In her youth, however, the meticulous writer-researcher almost skipped going to university (she was, as she put it, "a bit of a rebel at school"). When she finally did enroll at Sussex University, she took a course taught by the historian Maurice Hutt, and the rest is -- what else? -- history.

"It was such a powerful experience that, really, it transformed my life," she explained in an interview with The Guardian. "I was looking for something that would explain everything -- I was that kind of earnest young woman! -- and history seemed to be able to do that."

Gregory earned her degree from Sussex, then traveled to Edinburgh to research 18th-century popular novels. The research spawned both a Ph.D. thesis and Gregory's first novel, Wideacre, which was a New York Times bestseller. It came, Gregory pointed out in a Barnes and Noble interview, "at a time when people wanted a new sort of historical fiction: more realistic, more radical, more sexy, and harder edged. That's how I see the world, so I never wrote for a market, I always wrote to reflect my own view of the period, and it has been phenomenally successful."

After extending Wideacre into a trilogy, Gregory continued to write fiction, delving into 16th-century witchcraft , 17th-century political turmoil, and 18th-century slave trading, as well as exploring contemporary life.

But while Gregory -- in her own view and in the views of many critics -- continued to improve as a writer, none of her books matched the popular success of Wideacre until she wrote The Other Boleyn Girl, a provocative tale of sexual politics in the court of Henry VIII, and The Queen's Fool, the story of a 14-year-old Jewish girl brought to the court of Queen Mary. Both novels became bestsellers and widely acclaimed storytelling tour de forces.

Gregory continues to mine the territory of Tudor England for stories -- and she continues with her historical research, building up an ever more dazzling, daring and complete picture of the period. "Accuracy is very important to me because I have a total commitment to history," Gregory told The Guardian. "It answered my deepest questions, of which, I suppose, the most profound is: �Why am I here?' Understanding your history can tell you that. It's how I understand who I am and where I came from. I would never lie to anyone about history."

Good to Know

In our interview, Gregory shared some fascinating and fun facts about herself:

"I have an enormous horse whom I absolutely adore, and I keep playing hooky from writing to ride him."

"I went to The Gambia on holiday and gave a rural schoolmaster money for a well in the school garden to teach the children how to farm with irrigation, and to grow crops for them to eat at dinnertime. The project took off, and he and I have built more than 50 wells in The Gambia together, and we are still digging! Each well costs only �250, so I ask friends for money and I give my lecture fees towards it. It is one of the greatest achievements of my life and makes a real difference to the poorest people in Africa."

"Although some people think I am a romantic novelist I have always thought of myself as a rather gritty radical historian. For instance, I have never believed that there is only one person for each person in the world. It doesn't make the least sense to me. However, in reality, I fell in love at 45 and I am absolutely certain that my now husband is the only man in the world for me, a truth I find both ridiculous and uplifting."

"I love reading and I love thinking -- the reason that I love my books so much is that in order to write them I have to read and to think for years at a time about the same period of time. By the time I settle down to write I have to know fairly intensely about the characters, the period, and the issues. I always get interested in some of the side issues -- like the currency or the change of agriculture."

"I have a great passion for the countryside and I can't be happy unless I am walking in the country or riding once or twice a week. When we go on author tour my husband always makes sure that we have walking breaks to keep me sane!"

Feature Interview

In the winter of 2004, Philippa Gregory took some time to talk with us about some of her favorite books, authors, and interests.

What was the book that most influenced your life or your career as a writer -- and why?
I couldn't name any single book as a unique influence. As a child I read Alison Goudge's The Little White Horse, and the combination of historical fiction and gothic was very powerful for me.

I read all of Jane Austen's novels very early on and learned to love her economy of style and precision. She still seems to me the finest writer in the English language. But I am a very big enthusiast for the works of E. M. Forster, who seems to me to be able to take ideas of the greatest seriousness and incorporate them into a novel that's fluent and realistic -- and even funny.

What are your favorite books, and what makes them special to you?
As well as the above, Nigel Balchin's Mine Own Executioner -- a powerful description of the time, and of a man in complete contradiction with himself.

Another novel about struggling to understand oneself is William Golding's Pincher Martin, which is a work of genius, and one that no one ever agrees about!

I love the novels of Iris Murdoch -- though sometimes they feel a bit same-y. My favorite is The Sandcastle, which is Murdoch at her finest, a mix of magic and the absolutely prosaic.

I don't read historical novels, which often surprises people, but I find the genre very patchy. The greatest historical novelist in my opinion was Georgette Heyer -- her book on the Peninsular War, The Spanish Bride, is brilliant.

What are some of your favorite films, and what makes them unforgettable to you?
I adored Shakespeare in Love because of the wit of the script and the richness of the panoramic filming. The story is the most delicious tosh, but it makes me laugh and cry. I love Gone with the Wind, probably for many of the same reasons.

What types of music do you like? Is there any particular kind you like to listen to when you're writing?
I don't listen to music while I am writing because I find it too overpowering. It would make me write in the emotion of the music, rather than in the emotion of the story. I like soul to dance to, and blues and jazz to get mournfully drunk to, old songs like Cole Porter to sing along to, and classical music to read to and drive to.

If you had a book club, what would it be reading -- and why?
If I had a book club it would read the books that I lack the energy and discipline to read alone. We would start with Plato and work through the philosophy of the Western world. I feel terribly guilty that I know nothing about Wittgenstein.

What are your favorite kinds of books to give -- and get -- as gifts?
I'm ashamed to say I like silly books for gifts because I would never buy them for myself. I like the cartoonist Gary Larson, and I adore James Thurber. I like books that aren't even for reading, like books on gardens.

Do you have any special writing rituals? For example, what do you have on your desk when you're writing?
I have a mess on my desk, but the main thing is that all the things I need are near to hand, so I have a big ring-bound file of my notes, and my walls are covered with pictures of my characters and maps of the towns they live in and sometimes plans of their houses.

Many writers are hardly "overnight success" stories. How long did it take for you to get where you are today? Any rejection-slip horror stories or inspirational anecdotes?
The extraordinary part of my story is that I was an overnight success with my very first novel. Wideacre. I think the reason that the book was so successful was that I wrote it during my work on my Ph.D., so I was absolutely absorbed and even overwhelmed with information about the 18th century, and I had been studying 18th-century novels solidly for four years. It meant the book was powerfully researched with the information in my head rather than in my notes, and the structure of the novel was part of the way I thought. Having said that, it was at a time when people wanted a new sort of historical fiction: more realistic, more radical, more sexy, and harder edged. That's how I see the world, so I never wrote for a market, I always wrote to reflect my own view of the period, and it has been phenomenally successful.

What one has to admit is that I have carried on writing in this way through the years of the historical novel's decline that happened in the �90s. It was very disconcerting and very disheartening to be certain that I was writing better than I had written before and yet experiencing stable if not falling sales. I knew I could do nothing except continue to write as well as I could and hope for a change in the marketplace. That has now come, with readers discovering an enthusiasm for the new historical fiction which I and a very few other modern writers do.

What tips or advice do you have for writers still looking to be discovered?
Never write for the marketplace; you can't judge it, and you certainly can't catch up with it. Always write the very best you can about the things that you feel passionate about. You are your first reader -- never write down to yourself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the summer of 2004, we asked authors featured in Meet the Writers to give us a list of their all-time favorite summer reads, and tell us what makes them just right for the season. Here's what Philippa Gregory had to say:

Iris Murdoch, The Sandcastle -- This is a lovely moody book with lots of English weather and it starts in a heatwave, perfect for summer reading. It is a story of desire and English snobbery and the control of a wife over her husband, it is a fascinating study of a marriage.

Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger -- A powerful nostalgic look at a haunting love over a lifetime by one of the most thoughtful of English writers.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own -- This gives you such prestige on the beach! And it is such a powerful examination of the obstacles that face women in achieving success -- I always think of it as a summer read because I took it with me on holiday to Scotland one summer and my copy is battered by me hitting midges and re-reading.

Charles Dickens, Hard Times -- This is a great novel for taking the romance out of the past. Dickens writes of an England which is realistic and bitterly hard for the striking workers and he writes without sentimentality. It is also a great picture of England in the middle of change.

Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd -- The film of this novel was so good that it is great to re-read the novel again and see how much depth and wisdom there is in the original.

D.H. Lawrence, Women in Love -- Again, wonderful English weather, in this book. There is an English house party in midsummer which has to be read in full sunshine to be fully enjoyed. It is a wonderful novel by a writer who created his own narrative voice.

Mary Renault, The Bull from the Sea -- I just recommended this to a friend of mine who is going to Crete for her summer holiday. It is a most powerful and evocative conjurorings of the ancient greek world. Myth rewritten as a novel -- wonderful!

Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice -- It always bears another reading, and I think in many ways it is a perfect rendition of the novel form.

Nigel Balchin, Mine Own Executioner -- This was a hugely popular novel at the time but is sadly out of print now. If you can find a second hand edition I think it is a haunting story of love and the price that good men pay in wartime.

William Golding, Pincher Martin -- When I first read this novel I thought that Golding was the finest writer in the English language. The years have barely reduced my admiration for what he does here. It is not so much a novel as an extended short story, it has only one character and he is quite alone. You would not think it would be riveting, but it is!

From Barnes & Noble

Sibling rivalry and royal intrigue are at the heart of this Philippa Gregory's historical novel. With diabolical delight, the author of The Queen's Fool etches the story of the unsisterly machinations of Anne Boleyn and her sibling Mary. Though the story of King Henry VIII and his contentious consorts has been told often, The Other Boleyn Girl sustains our interest.

From the Publisher

Two sisters competing for the greatest prize: the love of a king

When Mary Boleyn comes to court as an innocent girl of fourteen, she catches the eye of Henry VIII. Dazzled by the king, Mary falls in love with both her golden prince and her growing role as unofficial queen. However, she soon realizes just how much she is a pawn in her familys ambitious plots as the kings interest begins to wane and she is forced to step aside for her best friend and rival: her sister, Anne. Then Mary knows that she must defy her family and her king, and take her fate into her own hands.

A rich and compelling tale of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue, The Other Boleyn Girl introduces a woman of extraordinary determination and desire who lived at the heart of the most exciting and glamorous court in Europe and survived by following her own heart.

Publishers Weekly

Sisterly rivalry is the basis of this fresh, wonderfully vivid retelling of the story of Anne Boleyn. Anne, her sister Mary and their brother George are all brought to the king's court at a young age, as players in their uncle's plans to advance the family's fortunes. Mary, the sweet, blond sister, wins King Henry VIII's favor when she is barely 14 and already married to one of his courtiers. Their affair lasts several years, and she gives Henry a daughter and a son. But her dark, clever, scheming sister, Anne, insinuates herself into Henry's graces, styling herself as his adviser and confidant. Soon she displaces Mary as his lover and begins her machinations to rid him of his wife, Katherine of Aragon. This is only the beginning of the intrigue that Gregory so handily chronicles, capturing beautifully the mingled hate and nearly incestuous love Anne, Mary and George ("kin and enemies all at once") feel for each other and the toll their family's ambition takes on them. Mary, the story's narrator, is the most sympathetic of the siblings, but even she is twisted by the demands of power and status; charming George, an able plotter, finally brings disaster on his own head by falling in love with a male courtier. Anne, most tormented of all, is ruthless in her drive to become queen, and then to give Henry a male heir. Rather than settling for a picturesque rendering of court life, Gregory conveys its claustrophobic, all-consuming nature with consummate skill. In the end, Anne's famous, tragic end is offset by Mary's happier fate, but the self-defeating folly of the quest for power lingers longest in the reader's mind. (June 4) Forecast: Lovers of historical romances heavy on the history will relish this new entry from Gregory and perhaps propel it onto bestseller lists this summer. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Before Henry VIII ever considered making Anne Boleyn his wife, her older sister, Mary, was his mistress. Historical novelist Gregory (Virgin Earth) uses the perspective of this "other Boleyn girl" to reveal the rivalries and intrigues swirling through England. The sisters and their brother George were raised with one goal: to advance the Howard family's interests, especially against the Seymours. So when Mary catches the king's fancy, her family orders her to abandon the husband they had chosen. She bears Henry two children, including a son, but Anne's desire to be queen drives her with ruthless intensity, alienating family and foes. As Henry grows more desperate for a legitimate son and Anne strives to replace Catherine as queen, the social fabric weakens. Mary abandons court life to live with a new husband and her children in the countryside, but love and duty bring her back to Anne time and again. We share Mary's helplessness as Anne loses favor, and everyone abandons her amid accusations of adultery, incest, and witchcraft. Even the Boleyn parents won't intervene for their children. Gregory captures not only the dalliances of court but the panorama of political and religious clashes throughout Europe. She controls a complicated narrative and dozens of characters without faltering, in a novel sure to please public library fans of historical fiction. Kathy Piehl, Minnesota State Univ., Mankato Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Historically based, page-turning story of Mary Boleyn, sister of the infamous Anne, decapitated by Henry VIII: here, as much a tale of love and lust as it is a saga about an ambitious family who used their kin as negotiable assets. Rich with period detail, the story is told by Mary, the younger sister, who is married off at 13 to William Carey, a courtier at Henry's court. Mary serves Queen Katherine, mother of the future Queen Mary, and begins her tale when her sister Anne, stylish and beautiful, returns from France to join Mary at court. The sisters' ambitious parents and their uncle, the future Duke of Norfolk, are determined to acquire power and influence, as well as titles and estates, from the king, even if it means that Mary must become his mistress. Their son George is made to work on his sisters' behalf and to live a life not of his choosing (he's homosexual and loves a fellow courtier). Mary bears the king a son, but Anne soon after uses all her wiles to make Henry divorce the Queen and marry her. The Boleyns, more ruthlessly functional than dysfunctional, continue to plot and push to achieve their ends. Mary recounts the king's wish for a male heir; his break with the Pope; Anne's skillful if criminal plotting that leads to the divorce and her marriage to Henry; the birth of the future Queen Elizabeth; and Anne's desperate attempts to bear a son. Meanwhile, she herself, widowed after her first husband dies from the plague, finds love with Sir William Stafford—the only strand of the story with possibilities for future happiness. Absorbing tale of a Renaissance family determined to climb as high as they can, whatever the cost.

What People Are Saying

Liz Smith
OPTION IT! OPTION IT! I do mean Philippa Gregory's amazing historical novel "The Other Boleyn Girl." What a book...I read this book in one delicious gulp. It would make a whopper of a film, with two great roles for two great, young actresses.

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Product Details

ISBN: 1416556532
ISBN-13: 9781416556534
Format: Mass Market Paperback, 752pp
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Pub. Date: September 2007
Series: Philippa Gregory Tudor Series, #2

Reading Group Guide
Forewords & Introductions
Read an Excerpt
Read a Sample Chapter

Reading Group Guide

Reading Group Guide for The Other Boleyn Girl

Discussion Points

1. Why does Philippa Gregory choose Mary to narrate the story? Keeping in mind the relationship between the observer and those observed, is Mary a good, trustworthy, narrator? As Mary ages, how is her loss of innocence reflected in her telling of the story?

2. Look at the exchange between Mary and her mother at the end of the first chapter. How does the author foreshadow what is to come? How do the events of the first chapter frame the entire story?

3. Discuss the Boleyn family's scheming and jockeying for favor in the court. In light of these politics, discuss the significance of Mary's explanation that she had "a talent for loving [the king]" (page 119). Is this simply a girl's fantasy? Why does Mary call herself and George "a pair of pleasant snakes" (page 131)?

4. On page 29, Mary professes her love and admiration for Queen Katherine and feels she can't betray her. In what ways are her honorable ideals compromised as she embarks on her adulterous affair with the king? Recount the whirlwind of events preceding Anne's becoming queen. Reading page 352, do you agree that "from start to finish" Mary "had no choice" but to betray Queen Katherine by taking the queen's letter to her uncle?

5. Consider pages 38 and 82. How does the author create sexual tension? How do the narrator's thoughts and feelings communicate the attraction between her and the king? Why is this important to the story of The Other Boleyn Girl?

6. On page 85, Anne tells Mary, "I am happy for the family. I hardly ever think about you." Do you think she's telling the truth? Later, Anne says to her sister, "We'llalways be nothing to our family" (page 310). Do you think she believes this, especially given her overwhelming desire to advance her own status?

7. Why does Mary say, "I felt like a parcel..." (page 60)? What happens later to make Mary think she's no longer a "pawn" of the family, but "at the very least, a castle, a player in the game" (page 173)?

8. Look at the exchange between Mary and Anne about the king on page 72. Do you agree with Anne when she tells Mary that "you can't desire [the king] like an ordinary man and forget the crown on his head." What does this statement reveal about Anne's nature? And what does it reveal about Mary's?

9. In general, what are your impressions of the sisters? Keep in mind Anne and Mary's discussion on page 104: "So who would come after me?...I could make my own way." Also look at page 123, when Anne says, "Hear this, Mary...I will kill you." Why are these statements significant, particularly given their timing?

10. Share some of the characteristics that you like about historical fiction. For you, what aspect of The Other Boleyn Girl stands out the most? How does the book change your impressions of life in King Henry VIII's court? Looking at the letter on page 275, discuss the level of corruption in the court. Does it surprise you? Were you aware of Anne's dogged and exhausting pursuit of the king? Did the way Anne became queen shock you?

11. How do you feel about the idea that a woman had to be married before she could bed the king? What do you think about the king changing the laws to suit his needs? When Anne states that "Nothing will ever be the same for any woman in this country again," examine why she could believe she would be exempt from the same treatment. In other words, why didn't she realize that "when she overthrew a queen that thereafter all queens would be unsteady" (page 519)? Do you think the family realized this but persevered anyway?

12. Discuss Mary's evolution of thinking from when she realizes that after Queen Katherine's departure, "from this time onward no wife...would be safe" with her later thought (on page 468) that "the triumph of Anne, the mistress who had become a wife, was an inspiration to every loose girl in the country." What does this say about Mary's state of mind? Is she being a reliable narrator here?

13. On page 303, George exclaims to Mary, "You cannot really want to be a nobody." Why is this such a revolutionary idea in Henry's court, and for the Boleyns in particular? What should the response have been to Mary's question to Anne (page 330) about the rewards of Anne's impending marriage to the king: "What is there for me?"

14. In King Henry's court, homosexuality was a crime. Why do you think George essentially flaunted his preference? What do you make of the intimate kiss between George and Anne that Mary witnessed? What is the impetus behind George and Anne's relationship? Discuss whether or not you believe that George slept with Anne so that she might have a son, and why.

15. Why do you think George declares that Anne is "the only Boleyn anyone will ever know or remember" (page 410)? Was that true for you before you read The Other Boleyn Girl? What about now?

16. After Anne is arrested, Mary pleads for her by saying, "We did nothing more than that was ordered. We only ever did as we were commanded. Is she to die for being an obedient daughter?" (page 650). What is your reaction to these arguments? Did Henry have no choice but to sentence her to death?

Forewords & Introductions