Mistress Anne [Paperback]

Carolly Erickson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1998

As Maureen Quilligan wrote in the New York Times Book Review of The First Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn "was a real victim of the sexual scandals her brilliant daughter escaped, and a subject Ms. Erickson's sensitivity to sexual and political nuance should well serve." Indeed, Carolly Erickson could have chosen no more fascinating and appropriate a subject. Alluring and profoundly enigmatic, Anne Boleyn has eluded the grasp of historians for centuries.
Through her extraordinarily vivid re-creation of this most tragic chapter in all Tudor History, Carrolly Erickson gives us unprecedented insight into the singuarlity of Anne Boleyn's life, the dark and overwhelming forces that shaped her errant destiny, and the rare, tumultuous times in which she lived.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Anne Boleyn emerges as alluring, arrogant, and, ultimately trapped. The author successfully turns the cliche into a real person." --Linda Charlton, The New York Times Book Review

"What more intriguing subject, then, for a historian who has chosen to concentrate on the Tudor period, and whose previous studies of Henry VIII, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth have been hailed for impeccable scholarship, graceful phrasing, and almost addictive readability--for the vividness and immediacy usually only found in the best novels." --Alida Becker, The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Erickson is one of the most accomplished and successful biographers writing in English."
--London Times Literary Supplement

"This book is highly enjoyable as well as being reilable and acute, indeed, it is popular historical biography at its best." --Christopher Hibbert, London Times

About the Author

Distinguished historian Carolly Erickson is the author of Rival to the Queen, The Memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots, The First Elizabeth, The Hidden Life of Josephine, The Last Wife of Henry VIII, and many other prize-winning works of fiction and nonfiction. Her novel The Tsarina’s Daughter won the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. She lives in Hawaii.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin; 1St Edition edition (September 15, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312187475
• ISBN-13: 978-0312187477
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #708,154 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #51 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Historical > British > King Henry VIII

More About the Author

Carolly Erickson is the bestselling author of many distinguished works of nonfiction and a series of historical entertainments, blending fact and invention. She lives in Hawaii.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Somewhat disappointing, June 30, 2000

By 

S. N. Harris (New Mexico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mistress Anne (Paperback)

While this book was a good source of information on Anne Boleyn's world, the facts given about Anne herself were sketchy at best. In spite of fascinating details such as descriptions of the French court where Anne grew up and the accounts of the court procedures of Henry VIII's divorce from Katharine of Aragon, one never really gets the feel of Anne as a real person. The lack of information about Anne's day-to-day life is one reason for this, but the fact remains that this is simply not one of Erickson's best biographies.

Enjoy this book, but read Antonia Fraser's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" for a truer portrait of Anne Boleyn.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad history, January 4, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mistress Anne (Paperback)

I bought a number of Carolly Erickson's Tudor biographies with a gift certificate; I hope that the others impress me more than "Mistress Anne" did. Miss Erickson uses about six main sources and quotes endlessly from them--the number of quotation marks on each page grows tiresome--which is a sure sign of lazy writing. The picture section in the middle, for some reason, includes pictures of Catherine Parr and Mary Queen of Scots--important figures in Tudor history, to be sure, but, historically, they didn't even show up until after Anne Boleyn's death; and they appear nowhere in the book, as well! Talk about sloppy! I was completely unimpressed with this 'pop history' of Anne Boleyn, but plan on reading the other biographies I purchased. If I'm happier with the others, maybe I'll post a more positive review of one of them.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Inevitable limitations, November 4, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mistress Anne (Paperback)

Erickson's avowed practice of giving equal weight to each part of a subject's life, rather than concentrating on the period when the subject was "famous," causes two major problems this time. First, there is (or was at the time of Erickson's work) little or no documentation of Anne Boleyn's early life; thus, for much of the book we are repeatedly confronted with statements of how Anne "must have" felt, reacted, behaved, etc. Second, the short period in which Anne strutted upon the world stage skims by far too quickly, with too little detail. True, Anne "must have" felt that way about events herself -- but surely the benefit of time and perspective is that we can linger and delve into the subject. Perhaps it is impossible to write a really adequate biography of Anne Boleyn.