Customer Reviews

Plain Jane: A Novel of Jane Seymour (Tudor Women Series)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Truth to tell, I've always had a soft spot for Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife, even if I have found it a little difficult to relate to her. There's something about the picture of how a calm, practical young woman was able to heal a few rifts and naviagate her way through a chancey and treacherous court before her untimely death that captures the imagination. Strangely enough, not much is known about Jane Seymour. Was she the pious, naive, country girl, who against all the odds, captured the fancy and affections of a king? Or was she an ambitious and conniving young woman who saw an opportunity and pounced? Many authors and historians have settled for portraying Jane Seymour as a colourless noneity; Laurien Gardner, on the other hand, has tried to portray Jane as something a little between these two extremes, and so making "Plain Jane" a rather engaging read, and something a little different from everything else out there.

Jane Seymour was nine when she overheard her parents bemoaning her lack of looks. Miserable and angry because their easy dismissal of her, Jane resolves to have a better future for herself than any of her clever brothers and pretty sisters. But as the years pass, Jane sees her hopes and opportunities dwindle to nothingness. That is until her uncle, Sir Francis Bryan, a friend of the King's, comes for a visit. Seeing in Jane something that her parents have seemingly easily missed, Sir Francis manages to finagle a place for Jane amongst Catherine of Aragon's ladies. Jane is finally getting the opportunity to spread her wings and make that future she promised herself all those years ago -- will she succeed?

While I found "Plain Jane" to be a fairly absorbing read, I did find the book a little tedious in parts -- like when the author keeps going over the fact that everyone finds Jane plain and dull, for instance. Another thing that irked was how we were constantly being told how intelligant Jane is, and yet we're not really shown this, or least not very much. In fact there were instances where I wondered about Jane's supposedly superior intellect. On the other hand, I did think that the author did a wonderful job of showing us why Henry would have preferred quiet, unassuming Jane over the tumultuous and tempestuous Anne. I also liked that the author gave Jane spunk and determination, and that she didn't portray Jane as a meek, pious weakling. On the whole, "Plain Jane" was a well written book -- the author did a good job of portraying Jane's life at home and at court, and various characters' reaction to and treatment of her (as well as her reactions to them). The problem I had with the book stemmed from the feeling of a lack of continuity (this may have something to do with the lack of a concrete time line -- chapter headings with dates might have been nice); the hammering home, once too often, that Jane was plain; and that Jane seemed to hover between being canny and coy. Perhaps the author should have used the voice of another to tell Jane's story as was done in "The Spanish Bride" & "A Lady Raised High?" However, in spite of all my reservations I did think that "Plain Jane" was a good effort and is well worth it's modest cover price.

Of late I've been reading a fictional series of books based around the six wives of England's King Henry VIII, he of the very many wives and mistresses. The topic of these six unfortunate ladies has always been popular with both writers and readers, and nearly every time that a book or film is published about them, the response is usually good.

Now a collection of writers, working under the psuedynom of "Laurien Gardner," have written about the first three wives: Catherine of Aragon, a Spanish Princess; Anne Boleyn, who would face execution, and Jane Seymour, a rival and contemporary of Anne Boleyn. With Plain Jane, the center role is now taken by Jane, one of Henry's lesser known wives.

Jane Seymour, as we see in the opening, is the eldest daughter of a minor landholding family, deep in England's Savernake Forest. With her two brothers, Edward and Tom, she's a bit of a tomboy at the age of nine, mad for horseback riding, but a chance bit of eavesdropping of her parents' conversation reveals a shattering truth to Jane. Despite her goodness and fair colouring, she is hopelessly pain and unremarkable, and very unlikely to find a suitable husband. For Jane, it's a crippling blow to her self worth and image.

Sadly, it seems that the prophecy is going to be true as well, when a possible suitor appears in the shy, softspoken William Dormer, whose family spurns Jane as being not at all suitable. Stung, Jane takes the chance of entering Queen Catherine's household as a lady-in-waiting. But there is plenty of intrigue there as well -- Queen Catherine has only managed a single living child, a daughter, for the king, who only desires that a son succeed him as king.

And King Henry's attention has fallen on one of the queen's ladies, the darkly beautiful Anne Boleyn, with her French ways and bold ways. Anne has been stringing the king along for a while, refusing to give in as other women have done, and angling to be his wife rather than his mistress. Jane is devoted to Queen Catherine, and views Anne as a scheming, conniving woman. But even through all this, she does get a bit of notice from the King.

We get to see the rise and fall of Queen Anne, and Jane's own role in the story. Jane is reluctant to accept the king's advances, accepting a miniature portrait of the king, but not a gift of money and a letter. Instead, she takes the exact same route that Anne Boleyn did, refusing to be a mistress, but taking a stand that the king is too glorious a suitor, and that she is too meek and humble for him.

It's exactly the sort of thing designed to attract a king who is tired of a shrewish wife, and hungry for a son after Queen Anne only manages a daughter, Elizabeth. With bewildering speed, Anne is charged with adultery and treason, and Jane is first engaged to the King and then Queen Jane. But will her fate be any different than Catherine or Anne? And it seems that King Henry is still a bit in love with Anne, leaving Jane questioning her own judgement.

It's an interesting novel, full of self-reflection on Jane's part, and taking a different turn than the previous two works. The author has taken time to explore the actual reality and truth of Jane Seymour, and her very short reign as Henry's consort. She did manage to give the king a child, but died of complications from the birth. Henry was devastated, and he would always maintain that Jane was his 'entirely beloved' wife, and his favorite. Out of all of his women, it is only Jane that would share his tomb at Windsor Castle.

My biggest drawback to the book was that Jane's level of self-pity is very high in this book. She continually frets over her looks, and over and over the author has Jane mulling over for the upteenth time if she will ever find someone to love, or care for her. It's fine the first couple of times, but the same thing is dragged up over and over again. The surviving portraits of Jane show a woman who isn't pretty in a conventional sense, but the eyes are rather attractive and very intelligent. Think rather of a woman of good mind and sense, who is prim and proper, with a taste for very rich clothing and splendour and who is very aware of who she is.

Unlike the previous books, the only extra addition to the book is an author note, that gives a bit of the background of the Seymour family, and notes on what changes the author took with history. I was hoping that there would at least be the listing of the next title in the series.

I do recommend that those intent on reading the series space some time between the three books -- one problem that I had with reading this one, and the one about Anne Boleyn, was that it was all a bit of a retread. Much of the interaction between the three queens is covered in the previous novels, and I was left very much with the feeling that I had been through all of this before. But the writing style is energetic and lively, and the narrative is interesting enough to keep my attention engaged. Too, by using Jane as the voice of the novel, there is very little of the sidetracking that the previous two books in the series suffers from, and instead the image of a shy, self-conscious woman is shown, who finds herself becoming the most powerful woman in the land, but at a terrible cost to herself, is given to the reader.

It's certainly worth taking in, and the only thing that was truly disappointing about this is that the name of the actual writer of the book is never given. A pity, as I would be interested in seeing more of this writer's work in the future.

Overall, four stars for a well-done exploration of one of history's forgotten women.

As the subtitle states, this is the story of Jane Seymour, Henry VIII's third wife. Given the king's lively reign, I anticipated an exciting read. What I encountered, instead, was a dull subject made duller by the storytelling.

Perhaps the reason so little has been written of Jane Seymour is that there's is little to write about. Certainly this fictional account of her life has me believing this is the case.

She spent an uneventful childhood as the oldest daughter of a middle class family, who lived in Savernake Forest, England. She was obedient, quiet and insecure.

The author attempts to engender sympathy by making Jane's world one in which her family feeds her insecurities when they aren't ignoring her altogether. Had they been cruel, this approach might have worked. Instead, they were a typical medieval family with typical aspirations for their female children.

There just is no story to Jane's childhood. Yet it accounts for about one-third of the book.

When Jane finally goes to court, she is, of course, overshadowed by the stronger personalities of Anne Boleyn and Henry. Another third of the story is lost as Jane attempts to appease all.

Finally, as the ending approaches, Henry disposes of Anne and marries Jane. This is Jane's moment to shine - as peacemaker in a troubled reign and as the mother - if only for a few days - of a healthy baby boy, which was all-important to Henry. But rather than focus on these few years of her life, the author rushes through the final (and possibly, the only exciting) part of her story. She dies - probably from complications from the birth of her son, the kings grieves, and the book ends. Meh.

So is it the subject of the story or the storytelling that's to blame for this rather dull read? I imagine it's a little of both. But any writer who can't get excited about her subject should lay down her pen.

Plain Jane is the story of Jane Seymour, third queen of England's Henry the Eighth. Gardner takes us from the time of Jane's childhood through the birth of Henry's heir, Edward, and the death of Jane. Covering such a span of time, Gardner gives us a good overview of Jane's sweet personality and how she was the antithesis of her predecessor, Anne Boleyn.

Unlike the previous two books in the series, the story of Jane is not told from an outside observer's point of view, but from Jane's. Overhearing at a young age how plain she is, Jane takes this message to heart and does not expect to make a grand marriage or even play any part in court intrigue. It is because of this plainness, however, that she catches the eye of King Henry, who sees in her a good, kind heart and the perfect queen consort. Gardner sticks closely to the known facts of Jane's life, and gives us a fairly well-rounded view of her attraction both to and for Henry.

The biggest complaint I had with the book is the fact that the author felt the need to continually point out just how plain Jane looked. If it was mentioned once, it had to have been mentioned at least 100 times, and that doesn't include the title. Okay, we get it---Jane was plain! But obviously there was more to the woman than just her looks because she ensnared the love and devotion of a king. A lighter touch as far as describing Jane's physical looks would have gone much farther in helping to explain why the king felt such an attraction to her.

Overall this is a good novel of historical fiction, and with a good editor, it would have been great.

I have read so many books, historical accounts, biography and fiction, about King Henry 8th and his marriages but it is usually Anne Boleyn who gets all the attention. It was so refreshing to read more about gentle Jane, the woman who was Queen for such a short time. She was the only one of his wives who gave Henry what he ultimately wanted, and needed so badly, a son and heir for England. She then died shortly afterwards, never fully recovering from the princes birth, and slips thorugh the fingers of history almost as a side note.This books tells her story.

The book is pretty historically accurate, but not dry. The author uses her imagination a great deal to place what she thinks must have been going through Jaynes head. Its enough of the romance between her and King Henry to keep you entertained but its not a romance novel. Its an easy read that gives a glimpse inside of the heart and head of a young girl who was used as a pawn for the ambitions of her famliy who gave birth to a king.

I loved it!

It was during my mad hunt for books about or surrounding Anne Boleyn that I discovered Laurien Gardner. I have read that the name is a pseudonym (forgive the atrocious spelling, I can never get this word right) used by numerous authors for this particular series (the Tudor Women series) which is a pity, as I would have liked to know who exactly wrote these books so as to find further works by these authors. During my travels, I noticed that there were an awful lot of books about the wives of Henry VIII- mostly about Anne Boleyn and Catherine of Aragon. The Tudor period itself seems to be of real interest at the moment and many authors of historical fiction seem to be jumping on the money making bandwagon. What I learnt though, was that there is more information known about the women who lost the King's favour than the one woman who actually kept it and gave him his heart's desire- Jane Seymour.

The little that is known about Jane is from the tidbits of information available about her family as a whole- for example, where they lived, promotions, whom they married etc. As Jane was not considered to be an asset to the family in any major way, (most women were married off or sent to the church) they obviously did not consider her to be important when documenting their history. A pity, considering the role she was to play at the end of her life. As she was in this role for a short amount of time, even the feisty courtiers and ambassadors did not get enough information about her before her untimely death. With all this in mind, I was amazed at the depth that the author has gone to whilst writing this story- there is enough detail and plot in this book to keep you completely hooked and occupied. I feel that the author has done their research on Jane as much as possible (as I said not much to do) with a few modifications, and combined it with whatever they knew about life for the average noble family in C16 England, which for me worked well in their favour.

The story follows Jane from her childhood at Wolf Hall to her marriage to the King of England and her death, and told entirely in first person (unlike the other books in this series which are told in third person). As a young girl with two brothers, Jane is presented as a tomboy- the sort of child who is not afraid of hard work, loves to horseride and who is eager to prove herself to her brothers and her parents. An unfortunate turn of events means that Jane is running out to join her brothers for play at the exact moment that her parents talk behind closed doors of her own future, and she is stunned to discover her parents think her plain and not good enough to get a husband. They believe her to be so plain that they fear they may have to pay the church to take her as a nun when the time comes.

Understandably upset, Jane vows to make her own future (much the same as Anne Boleyn) and prove her parents wrong. And so it comes to pass that

quiet and obedient Jane develops some backbone. The story starts to progress when Jane meets William Dormer, the heir to a vast inheritance, who she feels is her other half as he is decribed as being just as plain and dull as herself. A mutual attraction develops between the two, and they decide to marry, but when Dormer's family find out, they reject Jane as "not good enough" and Dormer is made to marry another (hmmm I'm having major flashbacks to Anne Boleyn's own story here). Rejected and humiliated, and having shocked her parents at her own determination and courage, they decide to send her to court to wait on Catherine of Aragon, whom she becomes fond of, in the hopes of finding her a husband. Who knows? Maybe there is hope for Plain Jane yet.

Naturally, Anne Boleyn becomes Jane's rival, and I was strongly reminded of my school years- the group of beautiful girls and popular guys who pick on the wimpy kid with glasses and a runny nose just because they can. Watching the King's attentions slip away from his wife to Anne, Jane learns from an outsiders perspective how the World at Court works, and in later years, uses this to her advantage. Jane sees Henry as a man rather than a King and once again a mutual affection develops. As Anne's world comes crashing down around her, Jane's starts to brighten until she eventually finds herself married with the love of a King. For a girl whose prospects once seemed so dim, she was now the brightest star in the sky.

As brilliant as I found this book to be, I do have a few grudges about it. Jane goes from being a relatively strong child who is certain of herself and her place within the world to a wimp with low self esteem and

to be honest she just irritated me. She nevers stops commenting on how plain she is (or thinks she is) and how beautiful she believes everyone else to be (who knows? maybe her low self esteem is what attracted Henry to her in the first place; once again playing the chivalric knight rescuing the damsel in distress). She makes out that Henry is only attracted to Anne because of her looks when it is well known that Anne was not a conventional beauty- being dark compared to the sought after fair- and it is believed by most that Henry was attracted to Anne because of her individuality and her wit. Jane has her moments of strength, but the majority of the book seems to focus on her plainness and insecurities. She managed to keep the heart of the fickle King of England, so she must have had something going for her.

On the other hand, Jane does present a richly detailed, thought provoking and unique view of the King's Matter, and the love between Henry and Jane is very tender and sweet- and is written as such- a nice change from the usual passionate bodice ripping stuff normally presented (lust presented as love).

With all this in mind, I reccommend that you view this novel as entirely fictional. We can all dream about what Jane was like based on the information available to us and it would be nice to think that the plot in this book was a possibility, but unfortunately that is all we can do; nothing is known about Jane with any certainty. Plain Jane is the only fictional portrayal of Jane that I have found and it does a good overall job; each character is presented as an individual, feelings are well presented, the writing is clear and the plot does drag you into the story. The size of this book did mean that I finished the book within a few hours- in a way I felt cheated and would have liked to have had more time with the characters that were slowly starting to grow on me.

In this book, we are finally able to regard Jane as a human being, not just a face in an unfinished painting. We are able to see exactly what drew Henry to this remarkable woman, and why he considered her to be his most beloved wife (apart from the obvious). All in all, this is a book I recommend any readers of historical fiction try, if only to give Jane a voice in this much told tale.

4 stars.

Many times, people think that all history books are boring, dry, and written as a non-fiction piece. That is very inaccurate. History can be entertaining and learned even through a piece of fiction. The historical fiction, Plain Jane: A Novel of Jane Seymour (Tudor Women Series) by Laurien Gardner, was a very enjoyable trip in history for me.

Henry VIII and his various wives have always intrigued me. The mystery, the romance, the court life, and the many lives that were entwined around this man has attracted many people. Ms. Gardner took just one small yet crucial part of the English king's life and created a story surrounding the life of King Henry VIII's third wife.

Though historically, Jane Seymour appeared on the scene as a lady's maid to the new queen, Anne Boylen, this book actually examines what her life might have been like before she caught the eye of the king. She was not known for her beauty. In fact, she was rather plain. Ms. Gardner gives the reader a glimpse of what it might have been to a young girl who was not one to attract many suitors and whose hopes of marriage with little to no dowry was zero. The result would probably have been a small convent.

Connects are always good. Through many family connections, Jane ends up as a part of Queen Catherine's court. She appears at the end of the drama between the king and, soon to be, ex-queen. She learns that the queen is kind and determined to hold her head high as her powerful husband brings before the whole country the issue of whether or not she was a virgin on their wedding night and as he publically flaunts his new mistress that he intends to make his new queen. Why? Catherine has only been able to give her husband a daughter and not the much desired son for the throne. Maybe a new wife will give him what he needs and wants.

Eventually, Jane becomes a part of the new queen's court and through the close contact with the king begins to catch his eye. The book brings out why such a "plain" woman would catch the eye of a man who could have any woman he wished and usually did. His first wife was beautiful yet he felt should not have been his wife. His second wife that he did so much for to get turned out to be extremely temperamental though beautiful. His life became miserable. With only two daughters, one from Catherine and one from Anne, he has Anne executed for treason. But rest assured, his eyes have already caught Jane and planned to have her as his wife.

It is through Jane that he finally gets the son he longed for. Ironically, history tells us that this young man dies young and leaves the throne briefly in the hands of the "illegitimate" daughter of Catherine, Mary, before ending up with Anne's daughter, Elizabeth I, sitting on the throne and becoming more powerful than anyone ever had thought possible.

This was a very enjoyable read. It gave some insight into English court life and how all the players in the drama might have acted and felt. The author draws a lot on letters and documents to create a story of Jane Seymour that in the end gets you wanting to know more about all the people involved. At the end of the book, you want to know more about the child and what becomes of him.

I highly recommend this historical fiction as a good book to curl up with. I read it in two days and want to read more of Ms. Gardner's work. Plain Jane: A Novel of Jane Seymour (Tudor Women Series) is a book worth getting.

I was actually pleasantly surprised with this novel. Jane Seymour is definitely one of the more under-researched and written about queens of King Henry the VIII and this book was very well researched in my opinion. I loved how the author integrated the facts with some fiction to give the information more body and context. This book talks more about Jane's childhood and how she came to be King Henry's third queen. I do wish that the author would have talked a little bit more about the end of Jane's life, her death, and the time leading up to it. That part of the book just seemed a little rushed to me. Overall, this was a great read and I would strongly recommend it to any fan of Tudor history or of historical fiction.

Truth to tell, I've always been rather intrigued by Jane Seymour as a historical figure. If more was known about her-- and if she'd lived longer-- she'd probably have just as many pages devoted to her as Anne Boleyn has garnered over the years. No matter how meek and mild she may have seemed, she had the courage and spunk to stand up to Henry VIII over his destruction of the monasteries and harsh quashing of the Northern Rebellion, knowing how the previous queen had been treated for "too much meddling in his affairs."

However, this book was downright painful to read. Why? Well, it did provide some information about Jane's life, her tenure at court, her romance with Henry, and her brief life as queen. I actually didn't have a problem with the repeated references to Jane's plainness. The surviving Holbein portrait shows a woman whose face had great character but who was not physically attractive at all, and we have to remember that these portraits were designed to flatter the sitter, so she likely looked even less attractive than that. She came from fairly minor landed gentry, and without much of a dowry, a woman as unattractive as she was probably would have had problems getting well married. Those were the unpleasant facts, and her family probably was not silent about them.

No, the real problem-- and I'm sorry to say this-- is tha the writing is so very bad. Whoever this particular author actually is, she does not seem to have learned the most cardinal rule-- "show, don't tell." We get paragraph after paragraph of dull expostions and internal monologues in place of the action and dialogue that we should have. Transitions are grating; scenes are dull and lifeless. The scene on pg. 166 is a perfect example. Anne, her ladies, and Thomas Wyatt are teasing Jane about a mysterious package she received from the king the day before.Anne suggests that it was an herbal remedy. Everyone laughs. This was tedious enough, but then we get this:

"Of course, the thought of the king's mixing herbal remedies, much less favoring the queen's ladies with them, was funny, since this was the work of women, and the king was, if anything, too masculine a man to consider any such remedies, much less to make them."

Argh!! This is like the first draft produced by a freshman English creative writing class. How could any competent editor let this get through? In fact, there are times when it's hard to say if the fault lies more with the author or with the editor, who apparently went on vacation that week and just couldn't be bothered to get a replacement. *Everything* reads like a first draft; the book would be greatly improved by simply cutting out paragraphs right and left (but then you'd basically have a short story.)

All in all, Jane was an intriguing character, and while there really isn't enough material about her life to make up much of a biography, there's more than enough for fictional novels. Let's see more of them instead of the never-ending mining of Anne Boleyn-- she has truly been done to death.

It's nice to see a book about Jane Seymour finally. But I feel the book focuses too much on Jane Seymour point of view during the events of the divorce and the marriage of Queen Anne and Henry than on Jane's life and her own rise and tenure as queen. By the time Henry even is engaged and married to Jane the book is almost done. Jane's tenure as queen encompasses about fifty pages out of 340; it was kind of a let down. There are far too many comments about how plain Jane is and even someone who loves this book will get tired of the references to her looks around 40 pages in.

Anne Boleyn and her time as queen, her personality and looks are never far from Jane's mind; Anne is like a ghost who refuses to cease haunting Jane; much like Katharine of Aragon was for Anne herself. Jane is given a little more personality in this story than in various others where she is an afterthought or a two dimensional character; and sometimes that personality is not always pretty. She is at times vindictive and jealous and even though she knows she is plain I couldn't help but to thinks he was also vain. But the one thing this story emphasizes is that she learned from the mistake of the two women who came before her.

I think the author was definitely too sympathetic to Henry VIII and didn't show what a cruel and heartless monster he was; usually the bad things he does are blamed on Anne Boleyn. His dealing with the rebellion of the Pilgrimage of Grace isn't even mentioned. Anne, on the other hand, is an evil, manipulative, shrew of a wife who beats up on her poor little boy of a husband.

I would personally suggest you check this book out of the library rather than buy it because I feel I didn't get my moneys worth. But the book is an easy read once you get to the part where Jane becomes a lady in waiting to Katharine of Aragon.