This was somewhat interesting, but lacking in many areas. I found it mostly to be about Henry. Surprisingly Anne Boleyn was portrayed as not the harridan we are normally led to believe.

The fact that Catherine of Aragon never once believed that it was Henry who was doing all those hideous things to her was totally amazing (read stupid), she loved him until the end and blamed all on the Boleyn.

Anne of Cleves survived quite well....as did Katherine Parr.

There wasn't much at all bout Jane Seymour or Katherine Howard......

In my opinion the book was lacking, but that might because in that era unless a woman was actually Royalty in and of their own right, they were merely political pawns of their families, much like cattle to be sold to the highest bidder. ( )

Okay, I should preface by saying that I am a history junkie, and that Tudor England is my drug of choice. Seriously, it’s like my crack. I know all the major players, I know how most historians view each person, I know who participated in who’s downfall. I’m the person to go to for any Tudor related question. I’m also the person who loved the tv show The Tudors because of all the sexy men but grumbled about the historical accuracies, mostly due to the timeline. Also, I love the Spanish Ambasador Chapuys. He was so witty. In life, and on The Tudors.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. Jenn, if you know so much about Tudor history, why do you still read about it. Well, the obvious answer is, like I already mentioned, it’s like crack to me. The not obvious answer is that it had a lot to do with the whole feminist reinterpretation. I agree with the feminist movement to an extent but I’m not on board with radical feminism, which is what I was expecting. Boy, was I surprised.
Karen Lindsey has done her research and done it well. But rather than pick sides like most historians do, and back only her side, she explains what most (or, frankly just some) historians think, and why she differs with it. She paints all his wives in a more human light than history tends to do. She wrote a very factual text that was interesting, witty and dare I say, fun to read.
Even though the title referenced only the wives, I was pleasantly surprised to find the opening chapter was on Margaret Beaufort (Henry’s grandmother) and the final chapter was on how his three children, and briefly his great-niece Jane Grey, took the throne.
The only qualms I had with the writing was that the author chose to spell the name of Anne Boleyn as “Ann”. It was very distracting. There is some historical debate about the correct spelling of the last name, while Anne was at the French court as a child, she commonly wrote her last name as “Bullen” which would be an almost French pronunciation of the English spelling. But the spelling of her first name has, to my knowledge, never been debated. I double checked with the bibliography included in the back of the book and each book referencing her was spelled as “Anne”. My only guess was that perhaps she didn’t want Boleyn to be confused with the fourth wife, Anne of Cleves or the “heretic” Anne Askew who appears during the time of his sixth wife.
Whatever the reason, I found it very distracting, like I already mentioned and it seemed to make chapters 2-4 kind of drag for me. But once Jane Seymour (wife number three) came into the picture, the pace seemed to pick back up, so I think the fault was my own.
The only other problem that I had was that she included a chapter on Anne Boleyn titled “The Great Whore”. I know that some have referenced her as such in history, but it seemed odd to me that one would chose that chapter title in a feminist reinterpretation. She goes on in later chapters to praise Katheryn Howard’s (wife number 5) ability to be ahead of her time in embracing her sexual desires rather than agreeing to be merely just a political pawn in a patriarchal society. The juxtaposition left me a bit confused.
But all in all, it’s a great read, if history is your thing. Really the only wife that things worked out for was Anne of Cleves (wife number four). I give this book 4 dog eared pages.

Sarcastic and informal (wives are "dumped," royals are "tricked out" in finery), spends far too much time on the broad outline of events and draws only superficial conclusions about these women, mostly involving conjecture about their emotional states (here she must have been sad, there sympathetic, now reassured). A "feminist reinterpretation" is a wonderful premise, and I'd like to see it taken up again by another historian who can invest in it a level of depth and thoughtfulness Lindsey fails to. ( )

I was a little disappointed by the fact that I wouldn't consider a feminist interpretation more than a personal interpretation. However, I still enjoyed the book. She definitely was on Anne Boleyn's side and expressed more sympathy for her than some of the other authors whose books I have read. ( )

This book was feminist claptrap. The author is not a trained historian and her feminist bias was obvious throughout this book. All the women were GOOD, and all the men were BAD, and Lindsey went to great lengths to show them as being this way all the time, and made up flimsy excuses when the women (rather than the men) behaved badly. She excused Catherine Howard's adultery on the grounds that her life would have been "unbearable" if she couldn't get all the sex she wanted. She also completely ignored any evidence that did not suit her premise. For example, she claimed Catherine Howard did not care for her lover and was only using him for sex, and didn't even bring up the love letter she is known to have written him, where she said she missed him so much and thought her life was very unfortunate when he could not be around her.

This is not history, this is feminist propaganda disguised as history. There are many other better Henry VIII books out there, such as Antonia Fraser's. I suggest the reader go to them first before venturing into this book. ( )

Fun! An interesting take on an oft-told historic period. ( )

This was an interesting book on the famous monarch and his six wives, in which the author views him through a particularly feminist lens. She portrays Anne Boleyn, for example, as a victim of sexual harrassment (which, given the times, is certainly a reasonable way to look at the situation). I enjoyed this book. ( )

Insufficient as feminism, inadequate as history.