62 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad at all for a first novel-and you can count on the facts all being correct!, April 28, 2007
This review is from: Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey (Hardcover)
I was both thrilled and slightly apprehensive when I heard that Alison Weir was publishing her first novel. I was thrilled because she has long been one of my favorite historical writers (especially when it comes to the Tudor era) and her books have always been extremely readable, leading me to think she might be a good fiction writer. I was also thrilled because of the subject matter, Lady Jane Grey, the Nine day Queen of England who is easily one of the most interesting and tragic figures of the Tudor age; yet very few fictional books have been written about her. I was apprehensive because I theorized (correctly it turned out) that as a writer who has previously only published non-fiction it seemed that Ms. Weir might have a tendency to be dry and not emotionally expressive in her fictional writing.
Nonetheless for a first novel this a very good book, packed with historical detail (you'd expect nothing less from this author) and various first person viewpoints (mostly female) including: Jane Grey, Frances Brandon (her mother) Mrs. Ellen (her nurse), Queen Catherine Parr, Mary Tudor and John Dudley the Duke of Northumberland. Each person has a very distinctive voice and so the story varies from being told from a cynical viewpoint to a religious one, from a loving nurse to a harsh ambitious parent.
You get a great feel in this book for Jane's life as the unwanted daughter of highly ambitious parent's desperate for a son who compromised by trying their whole lives to marry her off to the boy King Edward. It didn't matter that they made her miserable in their quest to make her a perfect royal bride. And then of course King Edward dies and John Dudley, desperate for power to stay in his hands as he enjoyed it as president of the King's council, changes the succession so Jane (who's maternal grandmother was Henry's little sister) is heir and marries Dudley's youngest son. You know of course, what happens next. Jane is queen for nine days, Mary escapes the planned capture and recaptures her throne without a battle, and eventually Jane is beheaded for her crime.
What's really interesting about this book isn't the history (well it wasn't for me, but I already knew it all) it's the underlying religious debate. In the book the country goes from being semi-catholic after Henry VIII cut off from Rome (but before they were Protestant) to Protestant, to having a Catholic queen and all the time religious fanatics are in charge. King Edward was one, for the Protestants, as was Jane. In fact if someone met Jane Grey today I suspect she would be intolerable because of her "I have the true religion and yours is false" belief system. There was no tolerance back then.
All in all this is a good book, the history is great, the background culture put in place to understand the history was great and the voices were all very distinct. But like I said earlier-there is a lack of emotion, certain dryness in this book. In spite of the highly charged emotional settings and happenings in this book I had a hard time connecting with the characters.
Four stars. And I do hope Ms. Weir writes more novels in the future-unlike other historical fiction authors you can count on the facts in her books being correct.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unlucky Lady, September 18, 2007
This review is from: Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey (Hardcover)
"A beautiful daughter, my lady," announces the midwife uncertainly. "Healthy and vigorous." I should be joyful, thanking God for the safe arrival of a lusty child. Instead, my spirits plummet. All this-for nothing.
So begins the story of Lady Jane Grey. Historian and gifted author Alison Weir, in her first foray into the realm of fiction, has brought the world of Tudor England vividly alive in her version of the events that took place after the death of Henry VIII. Through first person narratives by Jane herself and a number of the other central characters, Jane's brief, tragic life unfolds. Known today as the Nine Days Queen, this maltreated girl was the innocent, unwilling pawn of her parents' political ambitions and victim of the vicious religious conflict that tore England apart during the 16th century. All the pageantry, plotting, and maneuvering of the royal court swirls around Jane as she grows, until the age of 15 when she is horrified to find that she has been declared Queen of England in place of the rightful heir, the Catholic (soon to be "Bloody") Mary. Vibrant characters, a plot that's hard to believe but true, and accurate period detail make this first novel an enthralling page-turner.
If Jane had been the hoped-for son , would her fate have been different? Would her brother's? Somehow, with the the Marquess and Marchioness of Dorset as parents, that's doubtful. The dearth of male heirs was a plague on the house of Tudor.
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41 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A first novel by a longtime historian in Innocent Traitor., March 2, 2007
This review is from: Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey (Hardcover)
Longtime history author Alison Weir has taken on one of the more tragic tales of Tudor kings and queens in her latest work, Innocent Traitor, which takes a close look at the Nine Days Queen, Lady Jane Grey.
The story starts with two women in childbirth. The first is a highborn lady, Frances Grey, who is desperately wishing for a son after her first two children have died. But it's a girl, and Frances has nothing but disappointment and bitterness for the child, and is more than happy to give her over to the care of a nurse, Mrs. Ellen. The other woman is none other than Henry VIII's third wife, Jane Seymour, who finally gives birth to the King's prayed for son, Edward. But Queen Jane dies within weeks of her child's birth, and Frances notes that there might be a link between the two infant children, and she names her daughter Jane in honor of the late queen.
We first see Jane through the eyes of her mother, and Mrs. Ellen. Mrs. Ellen is devoted to her charge, and tries to make life as bearable as possible for Jane, who not only is precociously bright, but is subjected to physical abuse by her parents, and at best, indifference. Both Frances and her husband, Henry Grey, the Marquess of Dorset, are ruthlessly ambitious and see their daughter as something to use, and treat her with behavior that today would be called mental and emotional abuse. Frances in particular sees nothing wrong with slapping, pinching and whipping her daughter whenever poor Jane makes a mistake, and the only time the child has any comfort is when she travels to the King's court.
It's here that the novel starts to fall into place. Young Jane, with her Tudor colouring of red hair and grey blue eyes is a favorite of her great-uncle, the king, and his last wife, the scholarly Katherine Parr. Jane finds in the Queen a kindred spirit and a kindly woman who only wants Jane to be happy. For Jane, it is a blessed respite from the torments of her family home, and she also makes the aquaitance of the king's two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. Mary is ferverently Catholic and while she treats Jane kindly, Jane is more than a little wary of her. Elizabeth is bold, clever and Jane finds that she can discuss politics and philosophy with her, but also finds that she's far more risk taking, especially when King Henry dies, and Queen Katherine starts turning her attention to a former suitor, Thomas Seymour.
Thomas Seymour is blindly jealous of his elder brother, now Lord Protector for the new King, a boy of nine years. Thomas not only tries to woo Queen Katherine, but also Mary and Elizabeth, and it seems, even young Jane. But for Jane, he has a different destiny in mind -- a possible wedding to the young king. And Jane finds herself caught up in royal politics, and in lover's secrets, and soon enough is set on a path that will make her a legend...
Despite knowing quite well how Lady Jane's story is going to turn out, I found this to be an exciting read. Alison Weir uses her extensive research into the history and private lives of England's Tudor dynasty to tell a story of family betrayal that is heartbreaking to say the very least. Each person in the story, from Jane, her mother Frances, the Lady Mary, Katherine Parr, the Dudley and Seymour families, and even Mrs. Ellen, has a voice here. Each one is distinct and has their own mannerisms, and we get to see motivations and plots spinning. Weir also focuses on just enough details to set the mood, but sometimes overuses a phrase -- courtiers, for example, are nearly always "peacock" -- but also takes care not to let the story itself get lost in the trivia.
But if the reader thinks that this is a dry read, it's not. That's what I was surprised with, and Weir keeps the story moving at a rapid pace, shifting point of view from one character to another. At times the story gets dizzying and at first the use of first-person-narrative for the voice gets hard to keep track of. It's not an easy style to use, but Weir manages to pull it off, and by the middle to the end of the story, I had hardly any trouble with it at all.
Summing up, if you want an exciting historical novel with a heroine who actually lived, I would suggest this one. While it doesn't have actual romance to it, or at least romance that isn't being motivated by polical scheming, it does have plenty of plot to chew over. Jane may come off as a little, self-righteous prig by the end of the story, but you can still feel sympathy for her right up to the very end.
Two nonfiction biographies about Lady Jane Grey and her family have been published, one by Mary M. Luke, and the other by Alison Plowden. There has also been a film, "Lady Jane" that takes some liberties with the relationship between Jane and Guilford Dudley, but is also very close in feel to the book.
Recommended.
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