As I said, I'm not up on the "real" history of Tudor England, but it's a damn entertaining read. Here's what Gregory herself says about the history (my edition* has a Q&A with the author at the end) - there are spoilers here, if anybody actually cares...:
"Is Mary a real person? If so, what is actually known about her?"
We have the barest details about her. We know that she was born at Hever Castle in Kent, that she married William Carey, as in the novel, that she was the queen's lady-in-waiting and the king's mistress. That she was supplanted by her sister Anne, that her husband died of the sweat and she remarried a poor man for love and went to live in Essex, as in the novel. The invention of the novel is her motives and feelings, the broad facts of her life are accurate.
"How about Mary and Anne's brother, George? Did he really sleep with his sister so that she could give Henry a son?"
Nobody can know the answer to this one. Anne was accused of adultery with George at their trials and his wife gave evidence against them both. Most people think the trial was a show trial, but it is an interesting accusation. Anne had three miscarriages by the time of her tiral, and she was not a woman to let something like sin or crime stand in her way - she was clearly guilty of one murder. I think that if she though that henry could not bear a son she was quite capable of finding someone to father a child on her. If she thought that, then George would have been the obvious choice.
"It's uncommon to read about homosexuality in Henry VIII's court. Why do you think it's important to include it here?
This is based on the interesting thesis of Retha M. Warnicke**, who suggests that the circle around Anne Boleyn was a hommosexual group, and it is his homosexuality that George apologizes for on the scaffold.
Basically, one of the major premises of the book is based on scholarship that alleges 1) that George Boleyn and the other men who surrounded Anne were gay and involved with one another and 2) that George and Anne had an incestuous relationship that resulted in at least one pregnancy. If you disagree with that scholarship, you're going to hate the book. If you're agnostic or un-informed on the matter, you can ignore that stuff and enjoy the story.
*Gregory, Philippa. 2001. The Other Boleyn Girl. New York: Simon & Shuster. ISBN 0743227441. **Warnicke, Retha M. 1991. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn. (Amazon link)
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Date: 2007-01-17 05:21 pm (UTC)"Is Mary a real person? If so, what is actually known about her?"
"How about Mary and Anne's brother, George? Did he really sleep with his sister so that she could give Henry a son?"
"It's uncommon to read about homosexuality in Henry VIII's court. Why do you think it's important to include it here?
Basically, one of the major premises of the book is based on scholarship that alleges 1) that George Boleyn and the other men who surrounded Anne were gay and involved with one another and 2) that George and Anne had an incestuous relationship that resulted in at least one pregnancy. If you disagree with that scholarship, you're going to hate the book. If you're agnostic or un-informed on the matter, you can ignore that stuff and enjoy the story.
*Gregory, Philippa. 2001. The Other Boleyn Girl. New York: Simon & Shuster. ISBN 0743227441.
**Warnicke, Retha M. 1991. The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn. (Amazon link)