The Queen of Subtleties [Paperback]

Suzannah Dunn (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Flamingo (2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0007181566
• ISBN-13: 978-0739454916
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,550,364 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars All Three Stars Are for Boleyn - Not this book!, November 15, 2004

By 

LBM "Elbyem" (Toronto, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Queen of Subtleties (Hardcover)

Only one's fascination with the Tudor lifestyle and legacy will keep you crawling thru this book to the end. Since we all know Bolelyn's dramatic and tragic story, if it needs to be RETOLD, it must be done in an innovative way, when being recounted for the thousandth time. What it did NOT need, was to be filtered thru an "US Magazine" thesaurus!...Language like "partied", "awesome", and "bump" (for pregnancy), are actually used in their modern context! This is Tudor history... for Paris Hilton!

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing . . ., March 21, 2005

By 

G. Gregory "bookfan" (Philadelphia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Queen of Subtleties (Hardcover)

A very confused telling of a familiar story, jarring modern slang, and distortion of historical facts. I have rarely been more disappointed in a book. I though I'd list it on Amazon and get rid of it (and get a portion of my purchase price back), but the depreciation on the price of the book is worse than a new car! Don't waste your time on this. I agree with some of the other critics - how the heck does a piece of junk like this get published?

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Disappointment, October 7, 2004

By 

J. Jamison (New Albany, IN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Queen of Subtleties (Hardcover)

Anne Boleyn was one of the most interesting women in history, almost as interesting as her daughter, Elizabeth. Over the years I have read every book I have found on both of them. I have always had much sympathy for Anne since I felt she was caught up in a situation of which she lost control. She was a pawn in the hands of her father and uncle and in the end, she paid the ultimate price. However, if this book had been the first one I'd ever read about her, I would not read a second. In this portrayal she is mean, petty, a totally unlikable woman. And the device the author uses as to names--- Franky? Billy? Nick? I'm surprised that Dunn didn't have Anne calling Henry V111 just plain Hank. Other references were " Her stubborness" and "Her Oldbagness", meaning Queen Catherine. Totally distracting, and unnecessary. The story, had it been told in a more straightforward manner without all the silly names and more traditional language, would have been more true to the time, and I think Dunn went out of her way to make Anne a total villianess. I liked the side story of Lucy Cornwallis, but overall the book could have been so much better. Anne Boyelyn's life ended with a sword. Now she is getting a hatchet job.