[CTU]⋙ Download Gratis The Unfaithful Queen A Novel of Henry VIII Fifth Wife Carolly Erickson Books

The Unfaithful Queen A Novel of Henry VIII Fifth Wife Carolly Erickson Books

Download As PDF : The Unfaithful Queen A Novel of Henry VIII Fifth Wife Carolly Erickson Books

The Unfaithful Queen A Novel of Henry VIII Fifth Wife Carolly Erickson Books

Carolly Erickson writes excellent historical non-fiction. I particularly liked her book To the Scaffold about Marie Antoinette. She also writes "historical entertainments," which are much more problematic. While historical novels usually try to respect the facts while embellishing and adding to them, Ms. Erickson's historical entertainments have no regard for facts. She writes about what might have happened (but didn't), what she might have wished had happened, or what might have made a better story than the truth. The difficulty is that many, if not most, readers won't know where to draw the line between what is historically correct and what isn't. In this book she includes a Note to the Reader which attempts to explain what she is doing, but this note comes at the end when it is certainly needed at the beginning.

The Unfaithful Queen is a "historical entertainment" about Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII. In the book she does indeed marry Henry VIII, she has three other lovers named Henry Manox, Francis Dereham, and Tom Culpeper, and she is beheaded for committing adultery. Those are the basic facts of her life. But the book sends Catherine on a fictitious trip to accompany Anne of Cleves (referred to as Anna) on her way to England, it shows her relationship with the king beginning much too early, and perhaps most disturbing, it presents Anne of Cleves as a scheming, unsympathetic character who was out to get Catherine and used devious means to do it. I have never read anything to indicate that this was true, and if it isn't, that plot line is totally inappropriate. Changing history is a problem in and of itself, but making a real person into a villain for things she didn't do is distasteful, to say the least. Ms. Erickson does tell a compelling story if you can accept it as fiction. But there is just enough truth here to make that very difficult.


Tags : Amazon.com: The Unfaithful Queen: A Novel of Henry VIII's Fifth Wife (9780312596910): Carolly Erickson: Books,Carolly Erickson,The Unfaithful Queen: A Novel of Henry VIII's Fifth Wife,St. Martin's Press,031259691X,Historical,Biographical fiction.,Historical fiction.,Queens;Great Britain;Fiction.,-1542,AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION,Catherine Howard,,England,FICTION Historical General,Fiction,Fiction - Historical,Fiction Historical,Fiction-Coming of Age,Fiction-Historical,GENERAL,General Adult,Great Britain,Henry VIII, 1509-1547,Historical - General,History,Queen, consort of Henry VIII, King of England,,Queens,Tudor England,United States

The Unfaithful Queen A Novel of Henry VIII Fifth Wife Carolly Erickson Books Reviews

It was almost like you were reading her diary. It seemed very intimate and almost like you were with her. You wanted to tell her to stop and watch what she was doing because she was surely going to be caught.
I am a fan of Carolly Erickson's non-fiction biographies. I began this book with enjoyment but quit reading within the last 40 pages due to the gross fictionalizations. Please do not read this thinking you will be getting anything historical from it. Certainly it would take some liberties, due to lack of information, to flesh out Catherine Howard's life into a full book. Unfortunately this book takes the liberty of changing known historical facts, ruining the potential for an entertaining historical fiction. An example is the fiction that Catherine Howard's mother was the lover of Henry VIII and gave birth to his son, but then both mother and son died, breaking Henry's heart, and that Henry then sees Catherine's mother come to life again in Catherine herself. This is an added fiction so far from fact it completely mis-characterizes Henry's attraction to the young Catherine Howard.
I understand writers creative licenses but this was a hard read for me. I’ve read other books by author and enjoyed them but this was just lacking.
I normally look forward to Erickson's historical fiction novels, and this was no different.

Unfortunately, Erickson was off her game with The Unfaithful Queen. I found it shallow, desultory and disappointing. Having read previous Erickson novels, I had higher expectations, and this novel did not come close to meeting them.

I felt no empathy for the characters, who were not well-developed in my opinion. Everyone knows the story of Catherine Howard. It takes pizzazz to catch the spark and, sadly, it seemed more like an "Oh well, I need to write a book".
I actually liked this book which was a surprise. It's much better than the usual "historical romance" offering of the bodice ripper genre. There are several historical inaccuracies notable mostly to English History majors, but this is a decent read. Catherine Howard is considered to be the sluttiest of Henry VIII's wives, although few people make any allowance for her youth and self-destructive stupidity. Little blame is ever apportioned to Henry, himself, who must have been delusional to think this beautiful, vapid, teenager could be in love with the person of the middle-aged, obese and foul-tempered Henry. Several unpleasant aspects of the Tudor court are portrayed in stomach-turning detail, but Ms. Erickson did eliminate most of the torture scenes which make this period of history so nauseating and/or horrifying. I appreciate her restraint. She presents the story of the ill-fated Catherine Howard as a first-person narrative, and does it very well. There is some speculation that Henry VIII may have suffered from severe diabetes, a certain death sentence in those times. The disease could have caused many of his more lurid symptoms and Ms. Erickson's foray into forensic history is a relatively new and welcomed variation on the many portrayals of this dysfunctional royal family. Today, Catherine Howard would probably be an abused and illiterate teen, sending tweets to Justin Bieber, between constant texting to her friends, waiting for a ride to the mall and hoping for someone to love. Henry's motivation is murkier. Whether this was a last burst of middle-aged lust, a need to supply a spare heir or the desire to have someone young and attractive around him can never be known. Henry was a highly intelligent man and three of his six wives (Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Paar) were brilliant. He probably expected more intellectually from the abused, physically dirty, illiterate Catherine as she was a Howard, born into a highly regarded family. She was, in addition, a cousin to the beheaded Anne Boleyn, whose death scene opens chapter one, and whose death illustrates Henry's stunning obliviousness to the "rightness" of things. When you open this book, you already know the outcome, but Catherine's path from scorned poor relative to First Lady to executed whore is fascinating. Her story is like watching a robotic dog bumping into one fixed object after another, while never recognizing a safe path or a way out as it twists through the maze.
Carolly Erickson writes excellent historical non-fiction. I particularly liked her book To the Scaffold about Marie Antoinette. She also writes "historical entertainments," which are much more problematic. While historical novels usually try to respect the facts while embellishing and adding to them, Ms. Erickson's historical entertainments have no regard for facts. She writes about what might have happened (but didn't), what she might have wished had happened, or what might have made a better story than the truth. The difficulty is that many, if not most, readers won't know where to draw the line between what is historically correct and what isn't. In this book she includes a Note to the Reader which attempts to explain what she is doing, but this note comes at the end when it is certainly needed at the beginning.

The Unfaithful Queen is a "historical entertainment" about Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII. In the book she does indeed marry Henry VIII, she has three other lovers named Henry Manox, Francis Dereham, and Tom Culpeper, and she is beheaded for committing adultery. Those are the basic facts of her life. But the book sends Catherine on a fictitious trip to accompany Anne of Cleves (referred to as Anna) on her way to England, it shows her relationship with the king beginning much too early, and perhaps most disturbing, it presents Anne of Cleves as a scheming, unsympathetic character who was out to get Catherine and used devious means to do it. I have never read anything to indicate that this was true, and if it isn't, that plot line is totally inappropriate. Changing history is a problem in and of itself, but making a real person into a villain for things she didn't do is distasteful, to say the least. Ms. Erickson does tell a compelling story if you can accept it as fiction. But there is just enough truth here to make that very difficult.