Excellent - A historical page turner

books:


	• Six Wives of Henry VIII Alison Weir Ballantine Books, 1993 - 656 pages average customer review:based on 129 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

the six wives of Henry VIII

The book is great so far. I ordered it because its my ex girlfriends favorite book and i trust her taste in books.

Perfect

I recieved this book in perfect condition and it came a day before the estimated time of arrival. Thank you.

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Impressive book, riveting story

What I liked most about this book is also what since distresses me most about films circulating on this topic. Weir so thoroughly researches the profusion of biographic material available (besides Britain, courts throughout Europe had documention on the wives of Henry and him) that it is clear there is no need to fictionalise this fascinating story (you wouldn't even try to imagine it). And although it lends itself so well to a series (or a film) once you have read this book the inaccuracies in (Gregory's, for example) fictionalisions on the screen tend to get annoying. Wonderful book -the story is historic and timeless at the same time. (If you can recommend a good, unembellished biographic DVD, please do.)

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Excellent - A historical page turner

Watching the Tudors on Showtime got me interested in Henry VIII. I purchased this book because of the depth of its research and historical accuracy. It was excellent. I could not put it down. I tend to be more of a fiction reader, when I read for enjoyment. This was as engrossing as any novel.

One of the best

If you want to read about Henry VIII's six wives, there are more titles out there that you can ever read. A lot of the material is a combination of guesses and conjecture, with a slant toward the prurient. This book, however, is very different. Alison Weir spent a lot of time looking at primary sources from the Tudor period. She obviously did her homework, and her fictionalized historical accounts are likely the closest to the truth that we will ever find.

Unlike most accounts that paint Henry as a man driven by lust, Ms. Weir paints him as a deeply religious man driven by a combination of duty and fear. He truly believes that the fate of the Tudor dynasty depends entirely on the appearance of a legitimate son. Henry had at least one illegitimate son, Henry FitzRoy, whose last name is a sly poke at his bastard status. (FitzRoy = Son of the King, get it?) As time passed, Henry's sense of duty became magnified and overwhelmed by fear that he would die before a legitimate Tudor prince was born. His son Edward was sick and weak from the beginning, and it was apparent to Henry that he needed a healthy, strong son to take on the mantle of leadership should Edward die. He himself only became king because of the untimely death of his sickly brother, Arthur. His treatment of his wives was based on these twin factors.

Alison Weir takes the dry facts and weaves them into a compelling and interesting narrative, and the tragedy of Henry's relationships with all of the women he encountered becomes stunningly clear. I found the book impossible to put down, and although I knew the bare bones of what happened from history books, I had to keep reading to see what might happen next. This is a wonderful introduction to Ms. Weir's books, and if you read this one, be sure to have the others in your shopping cart. You won't want to waste any time getting your hands on them.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

"Brilliantly written and meticulously researched...Alison Weir is adept at bringing to life these historical figures."
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Henry VIII is perhaps England's most infamous monarch, especially when it comes to matters of the heart. He was married to six distinctly different women, and in this richly detailed and meticulously researched history, these remarkable, often misunderstood queens come to life once again. Their full histories and personalities emerge at last, giving voices to the six extraodinary women who left their distinctive marks on the English throne and thereby changed the course of British history.

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