Laura's Reviews > The Boleyn Inheritance

You have to hand it to Philippa Gregory — she creates a lot of suspense out of a story everyone knows the ending to. Normally I don’t much go in for historical fiction, but this was available at the library on cd and I had a road trip coming up, so, in the words of Katherine Howard, “Voilà!” I was entertained, though not enthralled.

The novel spans Henry VIII’s marriages to Anne of Cleves and Katherine Howard, and is narrated by three women: Anne, Katherine, and Lady Rochford (Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law of beheaded Anne Boleyn). Anne of Cleves is both intelligent and honorable, and I felt for her as she slowly realizes that she’d exchanged the humiliations of her brother’s court for the life-threatening humiliations of Henry’s court. The only problem with Anne is her repetitive “realizations” of Henry’s insanity. “I think he must be mad!”; “I fear the king is mad!” “The country is ruled by a madman!” How many times can you be surprised by this? Anyway, it got a bit old, as did her droning on about her life being in danger, especially as we already know she doesn't end up beheaded. (Remember the rhyme: "Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived.") And besides, Henry VIII wasn't insane, just selfish and corrupt.

The truly mad character is Lady Rochford, who yearns to return to the same court that had decimated her family a few years before. Even more unbelievably, she is shocked — shocked! — when her uncle, the Duke of Norfolk, proves as duplicitously self-serving as ever. I mean, isn’t it obvious that if a man will throw one niece under the bus, he’d throw another one? Her machinations seem doomed from the start simply because of who she's taking orders from.

The real star of the show, however, is Katherine Howard, the endearingly materialistic, shallow, short-sighted teenage successor to Anne of Cleves. She’s not so much stupid as supremely unintellectual, with a genius for flirtation and blindness to danger. Surprisingly, I found myself rooting for this self-serving little hussy who didn't think twice about feigning ecstasy with a disgusting old man if it meant she'd get a new dress. There's something refreshing about a person who doesn't know you're supposed to hide your materialism.

In the audiobook the women are narrated by three different actresses, which adds immeasurably to the individual voice of each character —Katherine’s portrayal was spectacular. Fun to listen to on a drive, though I wouldn't waste the time to read it.