The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory

[amyb]

I have to say it: I felt like the Little Engine that could while reading this book..."I think I can, I think I can"...finish it book that is!

Like most in my Historical Fiction world I have been eagerly anticipating Philippa Gregory's newest release The Other Queen, but I admit I picked this book up at the store with a little hesitation. While, I was interested to read Gregory's view point on Mary Stewart I knew it wouldn't measure up to other novels I have read on her.

Also, like most others, The Other Boleyn Girl, was my initiation into historical fiction and I will love Philippa Gregory forever for that. At the beginning of my historical fiction "learnings" I would read reviews and not understand why people weren't all that impressed with Gregory's writing, but that has since changed. After reading the likes of Sharon Kay Penman, Elizabeth Chadwick and Jean Plaidy how could it not?

The Other Queen tells the story of Mary, Queen of Scots during the time of her imprisonment with George & Bess Shrewsbury. It is told from 3 different points of view; Mary, Queen of Scots, Bess and George. A lot of people seem to have an issue with so many view points, but I don't have an issue with it (yet). Mary Stewart is a very interesting woman with a very interesting role in history, but you wouldn't get that from reading this book. The action is pretty much non-existent. And goodness, the repitition....yes, we know Bess raised her self up from nothing, yes we know that George is an honest man and yes Mary is a stunningly, beautiful woman and a Queen that must be free. Good lord, could one more man fall in love with her instantly?!

Bottom line...not too bad of a read for someone not totally dedicated to the Historical Fiction genre. My hope is that this book will serve as an "initiation" for someone else and we can bring more recruits over to the wonderful world of Historical Fiction!

Overall: 3/5

Song: "Mary, Mary" by Run DMC (Why ya buggin') :D

[Divia]

You were kind in giving it 3 stars, for I cannot. I just think the story lacks something. A novel from Mary's life before imprisonment would have been so much more interesting.

Or maybe its becuase PG opened the doorway for me into HF and now I have found so many other authors that I just dont dig her stuff anymore. The only book of hers that has blown me away is BI. All others are Eh. Before I raced to the bookstore to buy the books, now I get them from the library. Maybe I've outgrown her stuff.

[Misfit]

Maybe I've outgrown her stuff.

Maybe that's it, although I doubt it. Mary is boring enough as it is, and then PG picks the most boring part of her life? She'd have been better off dealing with the Darnley and Bothwell period of her life than this.

[Divia]

So the question remains why would she do such a book and why would her publisher think it was an OK subject to do?

[michellemoran]

My guess is that when you become as big as PG, your publishing house doesn't tell you what to write. You tell them what you're going to write, and everyone says, "GREAT!"

[cookie]

You were kind in giving it 3 stars, for I cannot. I just think the story lacks something. A novel from Mary's life before imprisonment would have been so much more interesting.




I agree. I would barely give it 1 out of 5.
Beats me why people are looking forward to reading it - I've been saying for months how boring it was.

[Divia]

Well, some people dont always agree with reviews. One persons dull book is another persons exciting edge of the seat book.

[Carine]

Although I have enjoyed some earlier work from PG, I think I'm going to skip this one. I already thought there were a little bit too many repeats in the Boleyn Inheritance with the different POV. Although I am very interested in MQoS life, but I think I'll try to find another book about her. There are too many bad reviews on PG's book.

[pat]

The different PoV are fine with me. Its the book in general! There seems to be no oomph to it. MQoS life may have been not so interesting, but as an author PG could have injected some life to it without changing facts. I have just read the part where she is trying to escape down the castle walls, her maid has fallen breaking her back. I nearly fell asleep. This escape could have had more impact.


I am sorry that this novel will not reach its conclusion for me,(I will return it to the library before its end,) like others PG introduced me to HF.

[Misfit]

I just wandered over to PG's member forums and it's not all warm and fuzzy over there either.

[Carla]

My guess is that when you become as big as PG, your publishing house doesn't tell you what to write. You tell them what you're going to write, and everyone says, "GREAT!"

Absolutely, because they know it will sell in the millions on the strength of the name.

I wonder what attracted the author to this period, though? Mary's personal rule in Scotland was a wild ride full of thrills and spills, whereas her imprisonment with Bess of Hardwick seems to have consisted mostly of embroidery and bitchy gossip - not very promising material on the face of it :-)

[Curiosity Shoppe]

She'd have been better off dealing with the Darnley and Bothwell period of her life than this.

My guess would be that PG chose not to deal with the Darnley-Bothwell period of Mary's life because it didn't give her nearly enough opportunities to vilify Elizabeth while simultaneously putting Mary on a pedestal.

Not that I'm, you know, irritated or anything by that trend in PG's books. *cough*

[Chatterbox]

I think she wanted to explore the theme of old vs new aristocracy in England. She's never written about anyone living outside England (as Scotland was at this time), but had written about Cecil. A key theme of the book is definitely the clash of cultures in England between the old nobility and their ideas of how a kingdom should be governed and who should do that governing (Shrewsbury, Norfolk) and those of the 'upstarts' like Bess and Cecil (one of whom Shrewsbury loves, as long as he can delude himself about her true nature; the other of whom he loathes but needs to respect because his queen does.)

It's a fascinating question that is also explored at length (and much more effectively) in Mantel's Wolf Hall. I don't think PG did it very well, however. And I don't think the book was about Mary vs Elizabeth (if that had been her intent, she would have had Elizabeth as a narrator). It was about how Mary's presence in the country crystallized this cultural conflict and brought it to the point where there was an actual rebellion, where the old aristocracy had to either submit to Cecil and Elizabeth or revolt alongside Norfolk, Percy, etc. in Mary's name.

This was the book that convinced me PG is a bad writer, but very intelligent & with lots of insight.

[Miss Moppet]

PG has a bee in her bonnet about the north/south divide and the negative effects the Reformation had on the country, especially the north of England which was more conservative and staunchly Catholic than the south. (Having grown up in Lancashire I can see where she's coming from.) Thus the 1569 rebellion was a natural subject for her. Perhaps it does deserve more attention in literature but I agree it wasn't the most fascinating part of Mary's story to say the least.

[Chatterbox]

Interesting, then, that she never really looked at the Pilgrimage of Grace and Rob Askew in her Tudor meanderings... although I suppose the themes are there in the conflict between Mary and Anne Boleyn in TOBG. Interesting; I'd never really thought of her as a romantic/nostalgic, in that sense of the phrase, and yet that would seem to flow from such a perspective.

Agree that is not the most interesting part of Mary's story, which is why I don't really see the book as Mary's story, despite the title. It's the story of the mismatched Shrewsburys, with their different backgrounds and expectations as a way of looking at English society.

[Miss Moppet]

Interesting; I'd never really thought of her as a romantic/nostalgic, in that sense of the phrase, and yet that would seem to flow from such a perspective.

Agree that is not the most interesting part of Mary's story, which is why I don't really see the book as Mary's story, despite the title.

PG lives in Yorkshire, which sheds light on her taking the northern POV. I've often wondered if she is Catholic, but I wouldn't assume so.

No, TOQ isn't really Mary's story, which accounts in part for the bad reviews and general disappointment - a lot of readers must have felt that it didn't do what it said on the tin.

[princess garnet]

I've often wondered if she is Catholic, but I wouldn't assume so.
On her website she says her parents are Catholic and Anglican but isn't of a particular faith.

The only two Mary, Queen of Scots novels I've read are by Plaidy: Road to Fotheringay and Captive Queen of Scots. The 2nd book covers Mary's imprisonment in Scotland prior to her flight to England.

[trueblood]

PG lives in Yorkshire, which sheds light on her taking the northern POV. I've often wondered if she is Catholic, but I wouldn't assume so.

No, TOQ isn't really Mary's story, which accounts in part for the bad reviews and general disappointment - a lot of readers must have felt that it didn't do what it said on the tin.

I think that's absolutely right- the other characters kind of put Mary in the backseat, and I felt she was always mysterious. Shrewsbury and Bess seem to put their motives and thoughts out much more than the QoS herself.

Ironically, of the few Gregory novels I've read, this is one I really enoyed. (I also liked Boleyn Inheritance.) I would have liked to have seen Mary herself fleshed out more, but I enjoyed the Bess character. I was sorry to see this practical, accomplished woman losing in much of what she'd built up in what should have been her best time.

[Madeleine]

I remember an interview with PG where she said she wanted to write about Bess of Hardwick - perhaps this was the book? Maybe the MQoS link was a marketing ploy, as Mary is probably better known than Bess to people who aren't that familiar with history, and therefore might have appealed to more people.

[Vanessa]

I haven't read the book, but isn't it written from Bess of Hardwick's point of view, or at least one of the points of view?

[Madeleine]

Haven't read it myself either!

[cookie]

I haven't read the book, but isn't it written from Bess of Hardwick's point of view, or at least one of the points of view?

There are three "narrators":

George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury;
his wife, Bess of Hardwick; and
Mary, Queen of Scots

[Nefret]

So far, I haven't finished it. Not enough about Mary, Queen of Scots. :rolleyes: