Customer Reviews

The Last Boleyn: A Novel

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History has continued to be a very fertile field for novelists. After all, the characters and most of the actions are already there, ready to be molded and tweaked into shape by the author, and if it's done well enough, then the few liberties that are taken sometimes can be forgiven. But if an author plays a bit too far with what happens in history -- or rather as we can percieve history to be -- then the story is turned into a laughable mess.

One of the few authors that I've read who has taken on Tudor England, and make it work, has been Karen Harper. Her first novel, Passion's Reign, has been reissued in large trade paperback format and retitled The Last Boleyn.

The novel opens with an eight-year-old Mary Bullen overhearing her parents discussing her future. Unlike her elder brother, George, and her younger sister, Anne, Mary has inherited the fabulous looks of her mother's highborn family, the Howards. She is blonde, blue eyed and very pretty, just the sort of beauty that is coveted. Her father, a fast rising courtier in Henry VIII's court, has been named as an ambassador to the Netherlands, and he intends to bring Mary with him to acquire social graces and an education, while her mother is heartbroken to be losing her elder daughter. Little does Mary realize what this new twist in her life is going to bring to her.

We follow Mary's life from an innocent child, to when she is made a part of Henry VIII's sister Mary Tudor, as she briefly married to the French King. Mary is at first enchanted with the French court, sophisticated and gay, but as she grows up, we also see her falling under the spell of the new king, Francois I, with his seductive, wiley ways. Mary all too quickly finds herself a pawn in the polictical and sexual games, and gains a hard education in the realities of royalty. Even when her younger sister Anne joins her in France, it isn't enough to help allieve the distrust that Mary has learned to face the world with.

When she returns to England as a teenager, she also moves into the circle around Henry VIII, and meets the two men that will change her life. Will Carey, a courtier from an old but faded family, is the one that she marries, but he's cold and distant to her, more interested in possessing her than loving her, and regaining his ancestral estates. And then there is Will Stafford -- Staff, as he is refered to in the novel -- a charming, cynical courtier who always seems to be there when Mary needs a steady shoulder. But will her broken heart, crushed by two kings and an indifferent husband, be able to accept this man?

It's an interesting story, made all the more enjoyable by the fact that it all really happened, from the questions about Mary's son by Will Carey to her second marriage. Anne Bullen -- the name has several variations -- is here a woman caught up in a dangerous game, and instead of being a shrewish b!tch, is instead a nervous, high-strung woman whose inability to moderate herself is what brings her down in the end. Henry VIII is also seen in a more favorable light, as a king who views the world as something to manipulate, and determined to have exactly what he wants. While the novel is very much a product of the early eighties style of romance novel, where men are a bit more brutal than what we would accept now, and women just as tough as the men, it's still a decent read after nearly twenty five reads. Few novels have that sort of legs to stand on.

Inevitably, there are going to be comparisons with Philippa Gregory's novel, The Other Boleyn Girl, which is also told from the point of view of Mary Boleyn. But unlike Gregory's novel, Harper stays firmly within in the known facts of Mary Boleyn's life. Yes, Mary did has had little attention from historians in favour of her more famous sister, but in the end, this novel shows her in a very human, far wiser role than usual. Mary knew when to cut her losses, unlike Anne, and have been far more realistic in her attitudes, and grows up considerably in maturity and wisdom as the book progresses. In a curious twist, Gregory has a future novel that is to be released also called The Last Boleyn, that looks at Jane Rochford, the unfortunate and rather sad wife of George Boleyn, sometime in the future.

Ms. Harper now writes historical mysteries, focused around Queen Elizabeth I as a slueth, but this first novel has been one of my favorites over the years, and I'm glad to see it come back into print. Several extra features have been added to the original text, including a new afterword by the author, and a reader's guide that has some fairly good questions for those that want to delve deeper into the nuances of the story. Recommended. This review appears in slightly different form on Epinions.com by this author.

(both with other books about the era and with Karen Harper's later work)

Anyone who needs a dose of humility regarding just how little we know about history should read this book (originally published in 1983 as _Passion's Reign_) in conjunction with Philippa Gregory's _The Other Boleyn Girl_. Although the portrayal of Anne Boleyn's sister Mary as well as the basic plot outline, following history, is similar in the two books, the details, interpretations of relationships and behavior, and many other things are completely different. Some of this is due to advances in historical research. For example, it was originally accepted that Mary was the elder sister; now Anne is generally believed to be, but the fact is that as members of the relatively minor gentry the years of their births were considered to be to unimportant to be recorded at the time. Much of the difference, however, is just due to different emphases and the interpretations of the individual authors. What was Mary's relationship with William Carey (her first husband) like? Did she marry him when barely into her teens or after she already had caught King Henry VIII's eye? Was he or the king the father of her children? When did she meet her second husband? The records are not always clear, and this leaves a lot of room for authorial creativity.

In the highly-regarded Elizabeth I mysteries, I have generally found Harper's historical research to be impeccable, but it is quite a bit more shaky here. For example, numerous references are made to the Duchess of Suffolk's daughter "Margaret," when a glance at any basic genealogy would have shown that there was no such person. Either Harper is referring to the daughter and namesake of Henry's other sister or to one of the Duchess' daughters, whose names were Frances and Eleanor. Things such as this may be minor, but they can be annoying, especially when repeated several times. The Duchess of Suffolk, the famous "Tudor Rose" who is well known to have shared Henry's coloring, is also referred to as having "raven" hair.

On the whole, however, I found this novel to be fairly well-written, and it kept me reading, even though I knew the basic storyline. The historical Mary Boleyn is an incredibly sympathetic character, and as a pawn of her father and husband in their paths to the king's favor, it is easy to feel sorry for her, but as she seems to have done in real life, she eventually finds the courage to stand up for herself and her right to happiness. Harper's portrayal of Anne is much more sympathetic than Gregory's, although I still don't get enough of a sense of her first "great love," the thwarting of which is supposed to drive much of her later career. (I also have to say that I cannot imagine Anne Boleyn giggling, as she does at least twice in this book!) Mary's parents and her second husband William Stafford are also clearly and convincingly drawn, although "Staff," as he is known throughout, is a bit too much the clich?d "masterful lover" of the romances for my taste. The well-known figures of the era such as Henry himself are not so vividly portrayed, nor are the machinations of court life, although an intriguing and slightly (but not entirely) sinister cameo of his minister Thomas Cromwell is provided. In addition, there are many other masterful touches, even though this must have been one of Harper's earliest novels.

This was a very good fictional account of the life of Mary Boleyn. You always read about Anne and George, but little about Mary. The book tells the story of how it was really Mary who set in to motion the families rise to power and how she managed to escape their subsequent fall. I enjoyed the book very much and recommend it to all historical fiction fans.

Having read both this and The Other Boleyn Girl, I find this to be the more accurate of the two. Mary Boleyn was the eldest of all three Boleyn siblings, born somewhere around 1499, Anne 1501, and George 1503. Anne was the sibling sent to study in the Netherlands, but this was not known until recently. Mary was actually sent home at the age of 20 in disgrace after sleeping around Francois's court in France (where she was his mistress), became Henry's mistress, and married Will Carey when she was about 21. The affair with Henry (which wass initiated after she married Will Carey) lasted two years at the most. Her eldest child was the son named Henry, not Catherine as in The Other Boleyn Girl. His paternity is questioned, but he is generally accepted to be Will Carey's son, and was born about two years after Mary and Henry parted ways. Mary's daughter, Catherine, is indisputably Carey's child, born five years after their affair ended. Some dates are slightly inaccurate, as Mary was pregnant with Catherine when Will died of the sweat. There is no evidence Mary had an affair with William Stafford while she was still married to Will Carey, and there is no record of Andrew, only a son who died at the age of ten. Philippa Gregory's version of their child, Anne, is rumored to have been real, but there is no real evidence of her existence. Other slight inaccuracies include the color of Mary Tudor's hair, Catherine of Aragon's title after the separation, the length Mary was Henry's mistress, etc. Also, Mary was older than William Stafford, by somewhere around 14 years. On the whole, however, Harper's facts are more accurate, which makes the book more enjoyable than Gregory's.

Karen Harper gives us an intimate look at Mary Boleyn, younger sister of Anne Boleyn, in her book The Last Boleyn. The novel follows Mary's rise in the French court, her return to the English court and her capture of Henry the Eighth's affections, and her marriages. Mary is presented as a thoughtful, dutiful daughter who develops into her own person over the course of time; she watches from the sidelines as her sister Anne overtakes Henry's attention and achieves more than Mary ever dreamed of. However, Mary is not the power-hungry woman her sister is, and she finds that a simpler life away from court entices her much more than a glittering moment fraught with dangers.

Harper allows us to see Mary as a real person who has her own motivations and desires, and she relies heavily on the known facts to recreate Mary's tale. Admittedly the first 100 pages or so are not as gripping as I'd hoped, but perseverance paid off nicely as the story picks up its pace midway through as Mary watches herself lose the king's favor and sees her sister's headlong thrust into the spotlight. Mary emerges as the only Boleyn basically unscathed in her sister's disastrous fall from grace, and Harper does a credible job of showing us how Mary managed the nearly impossible task. A minor irritant for me was the endless recounting of every item of clothing each character was wearing; after I learned to skip those paragraphs, the story flowed much better and I was able to imagine the characters more fully. Overall this is an enjoyable book and one that anyone interested in historical fiction and the Tudors in particular would enjoy. Recommended.

I just didn't think this was a very well written or well researched book. There were several errors (you would think they could have fixed them in the reprint) such as calling Katherine of Aragon the Duchess of Wales (she was the Dowager Princess of Wales after her "divorce".) There were also several instances of historical inaccuracy. I realize that a writer of historical fiction must embroider the bare facts to bring the story to life, but you would think that with some basic research the author could have figured out which prominant people were at court over the period of time she was writing about. Case in point, Anne Bassett was not at court until the reign of Jane Seymour, 3rd wife of Henry VIII, yet she is portrayed prominantly in several scenes with Mary and Anne Boleyn.

I spent many late nights turning pages because I couldn't put this book down. However, I must qualify something: I am a historical romance lover and this book reads almost like one. To be sure, there is plenty of History in this book, but its context is so integral to the story that I hardly noticed it (I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not).
Although I am in my mid 40's and loved this book mainly because of the interesting way the history was presented, I think this would be a good way for young women to be introduced to this period of history. It's a far cry from a stuffy text book, that's for sure.
Note: while there necessarily is sexual content in this book, Ms. Harper does a wonderful job of giving just enough details to give the idea, but not so much as to shock (that's not to say that some of the scenes aren't steamy- trust me they are). Nevertheless, the easily offended should probably not be reading anything about Henry VIII. In addition, parent's might want to use discretion before letting their children read it. I would recommend the soap opera litmus test for this book: if you are offended or won't let your child watch the sex scenes of a soap opera, then this probably isn't the book for you.
As far as the history goes, I am not an expert in this (nor any other) period of history. Some people dispute the accuracy of a few details of this book, but it seems to me that Ms. Harper gets much more right than she does wrong.

Always love anything portraying the soap opera that was the Tudor dynasty. A little bit of a slow start, but picks up nicely and then I had trouble putting it down. Was confused at first at the spelling of Boleyn as Bullen throughout the vast majority of the novel and knew there had to be an explanation, but it didn't come until very close to the end; would have been nice to see a reference to it sooner. I have already read THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL by Philippa Gregory (one of my favorite books ever and also about Mary Boleyn), but enjoyed this version as well. If memory serves me; however, I believe that the Gregory version portrayed a different outcome in Mary Boleyn's life after being cast aside by King Henry-which is right? This version got a little too romantic for me at times, but nonetheless, enjoyable. I do recommend reading this.

I will look up more books by Karen Harper now. Gold information about the forgotten Boleyn daughter, Mary. How she was used as a pawn to keep the King's attention. But earned the King's trust through her honesty which was not done during that time. Henry the VIII seemed to appreciate her honesty. Good book..good for Mary Boleyn..so much for Anne.

I was so happy to finally snag a copy of this. It was originally published under the title Passion's Reign and is the story of Mary Boleyn, sister to Anne and George. For those of you who have read Philippa Gregory's version "The Other Boleyn Girl" you are probably going to be a bit surprised at how Harper presents Mary's story. While the basic story is the same, there are differences in some of the details, relationships, and character behavior. I really liked this version of Mary's story. Harper seems to have stayed more within the known facts about Mary's life (little though there is) than Gregory did in her version. While I have nothing against Gregory's version (and I did enjoy it) I enjoyed reading something a bit more historically accurate (though of course there are some instances where Harper has taken some liberties but they don't really bother me as Harper hasn't promoted herself as an impeccable historian).

The story starts when Mary is about 8 and learns she is to be sent to France with Princess Mary Tudor. She forms a friendship with Mary that lasts throughout the novel. While in France she meets Leonardo Di Vinci, falls in love with the King, and eventually becomes Francois's mistress. It doesn't turn out how she expected as she's seen as the King's possession and is passed along to his friends. During one of her father's visits to France she meets William Stafford and thus begins their long and slightly rocky relationship. Eventually Mary returns to England, King Henry marries her off to William Carey, and she becomes Henry's mistress. She gives birth to a son but the true identity of the father is unknown. By this time Anne has come to court and caught Henry's eye and Mary has fallen in love with William Stafford, despite still being married to an unloving William. After William dies she and Stafford secretly wed and are able to keep it a secret until she becomes pregnant. When she tells Anne (who has now been Queen for some time) she and Stafford are banished to his manor, which is what they wanted anyway, and they have a peaceful and happy life there.

Mary seems much more worldly and wise in this telling of her story and, based on what happens to her, its no wonder she "grew up quickly." She matures from a naive girl, foolishly thinking that the King of France really loves her, to a young woman who knows when to "cut her losses." Her overwhelming love for her Father and her desire to impress him and make him proud of her influences a lot of her decisions until she is finally able to see that he does not care about her and is only interested in gaining more power. The big eyeopener for Mary is when she sees how her Father is trying to use her son as a pawn with King Henry (though it is asserted throughout this book that his father's identity is uncertain). Once she is able to let go of the devotion to her Father, she is more easily able to make decisions that make her happy and content. She knows she is being used as a pawn by her Father and husband and she hates it; as the story progresses she is able to take more control of her life. I really like Harper's portrayal of Mary (more than Gregory's) because Mary's character seems much stronger, more able to make decisions for herself, while at the same time still a sympathetic character because of the circumstances surrounding her.

Thomas Boleyn seems as ambitious and cruel here but Elizabeth Boleyn's character is much more caring and sympathetic to Mary. George doesn't play nearly as big of a role in this novel as he did in Gregory's version and Anne does come across as a bit more sympathetic. Will Carey's character is hideous and I felt incredibly sorry for Mary since she was stuck with him. King Henry is obviously around but there isn't as much of him and there is only one nice little scene between Mary and Queen Catherine. Mary's second husband, William Stafford, is quite likable, is always there when she needs a shoulder or a hand, and is quite wise in the ways of the Court and politics. While I liked Staff's character he sometimes comes across as a bit too perfect.

Overall it was a good book that I would highly recommend, especially to those that have read "The Other Boleyn Girl" and would like to see another version of the story. If you are looking for a book that has a lot about Anne in it, I wouldn't suggest this one as it is truly about Mary's life.