Good read, but tons of comma splices

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	• The Queen's Fool: A Novel Philippa Gregory Touchstone, 2004 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 183 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good read, but tons of comma splices

Except for the prologue, the novel is written in the first person, from Hannah Green's point of view. Hannah and her father are living in England, having fled there after Hannah's mother was burned during the Spanish Inquisition. Hannah helps her father in his bookshop and is betrothed to Daniel, another Jew, whose family helped her and her father get to and settle in England. Hannah has the Sight - she can sometimes see the future. Robert Dudley finds out and gives Hannah and her father little choice about Hannah moving to Kind Edward's court to be the King's holy fool.

The novel follows Hannah as she spies for Robert Dudley and eventually Queen Mary. She becomes a close friend and confidant to Queen Mary, but she is also very drawn to Princess Elizabeth. We also observe how Hannah handles being in love with Dudley while betrothed to Daniel and how she deals with the fear of her faith being discovered after Queen Mary begins burning heretics.

I really enjoyed this book. Hannah has flaws, as any well-written character should, and she does and says some unlikeable and sometimes arrogant things. Overall, though, she is a sympathetic, likeable character, and she clearly grows from a young, somewhat arrogant teenager into a more mature woman. She is a very caring woman, who prefers to befriend Mary and Elizabeth, rather than spy on them. I would have liked for the Sight to have been a bigger part of the book. Although the topic is often brought up, in actuality Hannah has relatively few visions of the future.

I know little of the relationship between King Philip and Princess Elizabeth, so I can't speak to Philippa Gregory's portrayal of that aspect of the book. However, the rest of the history and the major players in the Tudor court described in the book are portrayed accurately. Some people may find Hannah too sympathetic to Queen Mary, given Mary's decreed burning of over 300 non-Catholics, but it's also clear that Hannah disapproves of this, and we are given reasons for her to be sympathetic to Mary. Personally, I found the portrayal of Elizabeth too harsh. Although Hannah is very drawn to Elizabeth's charisma, the future Queen generally comes across as unlikeable and completely ungenuine. This may be how most history books portray her, but the only biography of her that I've read, by Alison Weir, portrays Elizabeth more sympathetically.

My main problem with the book is that the author constantly (i.e., multiple times per page) used commas when she should have used periods or semicolons. This could be the author's style, or perhaps that's how it's done in England, where the author lives, but I found it very irritating. Fortunately, the story is well-written enough that I was often distracted from the improper (at least in the U.S.) grammar.

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Really fantastic

This one of my favorite books by Gregory and it adds an interesting touch after reading The Other Boleyn Girl and seeing the struggles between Elizabeth and Mary. It was really refreshing to see a different side of Mary portrayed other than the ruthless and demented side that most people would like to paint her as. I also really liked Hannah's personnal life story amidst the splendor and opulence of the Tudor reign. The only thing that I wish had been added was Hannah's visions and portrayals of the future.

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Unputtdownable despite it's flaws

This is the story of a young girl, Hannah Green, from a Jewish family that hides their identity to escape persecution while secretly holding on to their faith and nationhood.
Hannah and her father have come from Spain, where Hannah's mother was burned as one of the thousands of innocent victims of the Spanish Inquisition.
Hannah has the gift of a seer. She is dressed as a boy in order to protect her, and soon comes to the attention of Lord Robert Dudley, who recruits her to the court of Queen Mary I of England as a 'fool'', but whose real task is as a spy. In the meantime Hannah is betrothed to Daniel, from an old Jewish family.
She soon comes to love the Queen, which is a puzzle, as it was Bloody Mary who brought the Spanish Inquisition to England. The author's rewrite of history by her over-sympathetic portrayal of Queen Mary and her unflattering portrayal of Queen Elizabeth does not sit well with me.
How can one sympathetically portray the Queen who burned thousands in order to force Roman Catholicism back onto England. And how can Hannah have been so devoted to the ruler who brought the brutal inquisition to England, after Hannah's mother was butchered by these same 16th century terrorists of Mary's ilk.
It was Elizabeth who freed England from Mary's terror and was one of England's greatest rulers ever. Elizabeth presided over a golden age of peace, prosperity and culture.
It will not do to present Elizabeth as a scheming harlot. The author go's out of her way to explore the depth of Mary's character but does not do the same for Elizabeth.
The author was also insufficiently sympathetic to Elizabeth, involving her seduction and exploitation by Thomas Seymour, when she was fourteen.

Hannah comes across as intriguing, attractive, like-able and interesting. The element of the crypto-Jews or 'marannos' is of great interest to me.
The book is a real page turner and fabulously written, despite the flaws I have highlighted.

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Retetitive

This was my first foray into the world of Philippa Gregory. I purchased this book primarily because I was going to be flying for 5 hours and thought this 500 page book would keep my mind occupied for a while.

In general I enjoyed a great deal of the book. However, this could easily have been shortened by about 100 to 150 pages. There was a huge amount of repetitiveness in this book. As I read, I found conversations that had taken place pages ago were now being repeated. Certainly this book could have been edited better, but judging by the length of other Gregory books (which I've avoided in the past) this seems to be her writing style.

I did like the character of Hannah very much, although her's is a completely implausible storyline. But I did find myself rooting for her and was pleased with the ending.

I'm giving the book a 4 star rating, but it's really a 3 1/2 star book for me. I'm not sure If I should venture into reading any other books by Gregory, at least not for a while.

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A Must Read!

This book was a real attention grabber. I couldn't put it down once I started it. You learn a lot about Mary and more about Elizabeth. Hannah the fool was actually a real fixture in this time. I'm not how major a role she played in the history of this family but other books mention her and she did affect other important people's lives in this time. It's got scandal and tragedy. I recommend it!

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

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.

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