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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
a nice read, July 4, 2006
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.
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A close look at Queen Jane, Great Harry's third wife., September 23, 2006
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.
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Entry in the Series, August 8, 2006
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.
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