Philippa Gregory
Paperback | Pages: 490 pages Rating: 3.86 | 87361 Users | 3127 Reviews
Describe Books Supposing The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels #12)
| Original Title: | The Queen's Fool |
| ISBN: | 0743246071 (ISBN13: 9780743246071) |
| Edition Language: | English URL http://www.philippagregory.com/books/the-queen-s-fool |
| Series: | The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels #12, The Tudor Court #6 |
| Characters: | Will Somers, Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, Hannah the Fool, Elizabeth I of England, Mary I of England |
| Setting: | London, England Calais(France) |
Explanation As Books The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels #12)
A young woman caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, must find her true destiny amid treason, poisonous rivalries, loss of faith, and unrequited love. It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of "Sight," the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward's protector, who brings her to court as a "holy fool" for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up in her own yearnings and desires. Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen's Fool is another rich and emotionally resonant gem from this wonderful storyteller.Itemize Out Of Books The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels #12)
| Title | : | The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels #12) |
| Author | : | Philippa Gregory |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Deluxe Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 490 pages |
| Published | : | February 4th 2004 by Harper Collins (first published February 4th 2003) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Romance. English History. Tudor Period. European Literature. British Literature. Adult |
Rating Out Of Books The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels #12)
Ratings: 3.86 From 87361 Users | 3127 ReviewsAssess Out Of Books The Queen's Fool (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels #12)
A bit of a mixed bag here. I liked her characterization of Mary - mostly. I didn't really like Hannah - again, mostly. The story had a fantastic concept - a woman with the "sight" who would then be in a perfect position to be present with Edward, Mary and Elizabeth but ALSO show us life as an outsider. It also had moments where the writing "sang" (when Philippa Gregory is "on", she's really "on"). But it didn't fully deliver on the promise because the characters were inconsistent in theirFor most of this book, the main character's story is completely subsumed by the machinations of the various royalty and wannabes that surround her--she's just along for the ride. It's only in the last quarter of the book or so that Hannah actually gets her own storyline. And the storyline goes like this: "OMG, I'm married and in love, but I hate my in-laws!" --> "OMG, my husband cheated on me before we were married, and he has a child he didn't tell me about! I'm going to run away now."
"And all they will remember of this queen is that she brought the country floods and famine and fire. She will be remember as England's curse when she was to have been our virgin queen, England's saviour." That quote is exactly what I knew of Queen Mary Tudor, Elizabeth I's older sister and predecessor. The Queen's Fool is a factual and fictional retelling of Mary's evolution from the miserable child who saw her mother divorced and put aside by Henry VIII, to the woman who would become queen
Hannah Verde "Green" is a young Jewish girl who poses as a boy to apprentice to her father, a bookkeeper. But when Lord Robert Dudley realizes she has "The Sight", she becomes King Edward's Fool. Hannah The Fool gets to experience the King's death, Queen Mary's rise to the throne, and Princess Elizabeth's eternal scheming to get on the throne all from the front seat of the court. But the real question is: Will Hannah ever find Twoo Lurve?The last Philippa Gregory book I read, The Other Boleyn
The Queen's Fool was stupid. Historically inaccurate and completely out of touch with the tone of the era. Some books - Michael Faber's The Crimson Petal and the White comes to mind, or Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell - can walk and talk like historical fiction, and still prove irresistably interesting to contemporary audiences. (Postmodernist historical fiction?) This one, however, fails miserably. I thought I was going to like it. I really, really didn't.
Gregory truly captured an "underdog" in her novel depicting Hannah, the Queen's fool in the novel by the same title. Hannah, a Jewish exile is brought to court and although she is a "Fool", she becomes so much more. Strong, intelligent, and ambitious; Gregory shows that even "lesser" court members were at the top of their game. The novel is very vivid to say the least (do you expect any less from Gregory?) and is an entertaining and easy read. How historically accurate is it, you ask? Well,
Philippa Gregory writes royalty fanfic, pretty much. Sometimes she'll throw in a Mary Sue stand-in based on an actual figure from history (such as Mary Boleyn in The Other Boleyn Girl) and ground her story on some small fact she wanted to do a what-if on. That's okay, but it still feels like putting in your own new character into someone else's story (this time a real one) and adding importance to them that they didn't have. Just like fanfics.The Queen's Fool hones in on fictional Spaniard
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