An interesting perspective and an absorbing read

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	• The Virgin's Lover Philippa Gregory, 2004 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 149 reviews view larger image
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An Elizabethan Tug of War

I love Philippa Gregory's Tudor novels and am only sorry that I have now concluded reading all of them. This one has some problems that disappointed me - Elizabeth is a giggling, easily-led dope, and not the shrewd manipulator and politician that we know her to be from historical record. I suspect Dudley and Cecil are fairly accurately represented, however, and I was very interested in the viewpoint of Amy Dudley, the innocent wife cast aside in favor of power and the title of King.

This was an interesting read, and one that kept me turning the pages, but it was not up to the standard of the other Tudor books. I preferred Boleyn Inheritance and The Constant Princess for intrigue. I hope for better things in the future.

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A Good Read

This book is well written, and flows keeping the readers attention. For a historical novel, she does a great job in keeping the reader enthralled. There are much better reviews than mine that go into more depth, but short and to the point this is a great novel written by a very good author and I do not think you will be dissapointed. I must also say that I did read two other books alongside this one called "My Enemy the Queen" by Victoria Holt, and the other, "Queen of This Realm: The Tudor Queens" by Jean Plaidy aka Victoria Holt. These three books are all great reads about Queen Elizabeth I and they do go into much depth, they do not dissapoint.

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An interesting perspective and an absorbing read

The first three years of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Calais is lost. The Catholic Queen Mary is dead and the Protestant Elizabeth will not have "Popish idolatry" in the churches of England or her people pray to anyone but God.

Without dwelling heavily on religion or politics the author still manages to clarify exactly what was happening in the country and the political worries that the Queen and her advisor's had.
The Queen herself is portrayed as fun loving, proud and stubborn yet also unsure and worry ridden with a habit of pushing her cuticles back nervously and making her fingers sore. Very different to the strong, almost masculine Elizabeth that we've often been led to believe she was like. Marriage is discussed as a move to make England more secure and to these ends the Queen flirts with various prospective husbands yet promises herself to none.

Gregory also captures the tranquility of the countryside and the more simplified living of country folk as we follow Amy's story; Her pain and her pride as well as her loyalty and hope that Lord Dudley will come home to her and that the rumours from court of the frivolities and obvious passion between Elizabeth and her childhood friend Robert Dudley...Amy's husband...will subside.

I really liked this interpretation of what might have happened between Robert and his wife...and Robert and the Queen, especially as (explained in the Author's note at the end of the book) speculation into the death that occurs, was never resolved!

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Excellent Finale

The Virgin's Lover is definitely an excellent closing novel to read after the other four in this "series." I found it to be bittersweet and true to the true nature of the characters. The ending in particular will break your heart; Gregory's treatment of Amy is so gentle and yet honest that you cannot help but hurt for her.

For reference, the order to read these books is:
The Constant Princess
The Other Boleyn Girl
The Boleyn Inheritance
The Queen's Fool
The Virgin's Lover

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

"In the autumn of 1558, church bells across England ring out the joyous news that Elizabeth I is the new queen. One woman hears the tidings with utter dread. She is Amy Dudley, wife of Sir Robert, and she knows that Elizabeth's ambitious leap to the throne will pull her husband back to the very center of the glamorous Tudor court, where he was born to be. Amy had hoped that the merciless ambitions of the Dudley family had died on Tower Green when Robert's father was beheaded and his sons shamed; but the peal of bells she hears is his summons once more to power, intrigue, and a passionate love affair with the young queen. Can Amy's steadfast faith in him, her constant love, and the home she wants to make for them in the heart of the English countryside compete with the allure of the new queen? Elizabeth's excited triumph is short-lived. She has inherited a bankrupt country, riven by enmity, where treason is normal and foreign war a certainty. Her faithful advisor William Cecil warns her that she will survive only if she marries a strong prince to govern the rebellious country, but the one man Elizabeth desires is her childhood friend, the irresistible, ambitious Robert Dudley. Robert revels in the opportunities of the new reign. The son of an aristocratic family brought up in palaces as the equal of his royal playmates, Robert knows he can reclaim his destiny at Elizabeth's side. Elizabeth cannot resist his courtship, and as the young couple slowly falls in love, Robert starts to think the impossible: can he set aside his wife and marry the young queen? Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover answers the question about an unsolved crime that has fascinated detectives and historians for centuries. Philippa Gregory uses documents and evidence from the Tudor era and, with almost magical insight into the desires of Robert Dudley and his lovers, paints a picture of a country on the brink of greatness, a young woman grasping at her power, a young man whose ambition is greater than his means, and the wife who cannot forgive them. "

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