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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
"I don't do historical fiction.", January 25, 2008
This review is from: The Sixth Wife: A Novel (Paperback)
Newly bereaved, Katherine Parr, the sixth wife of Henry VIII, makes an impulsive marriage early in her widowhood. The dashing Thomas Seymour is not a man to be trusted, given to protecting his own self-interests at any cost. Parr is an attractive match, her funds sufficient to put a smile on Seymour's face, the woman having despaired of ever having children, now in her 30s. But the charming Seymour changes all that, Kate enchanted with the handsome fellow she has married. Perhaps it is Kate's naiveté that leads to her marriage; desired by the sophisticated, charming Seymour, Kate can be forgiven for falling in love, especially after the uncomfortable years with the ailing, cantankerous Henry, avoiding the fate of Henry's other wives through his demise.
At the beginning of the union with Thomas Seymour, it is Kate's friend, Catherine, Duchess of Suffolk, who supplies the sardonic narrative, questioning Kate's motives and innocence in the face of an ambitious, sly husband. The young Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, happily takes up residence with the newlyweds, the thirteen-year-old queen-to-be out of place in Mary's Catholic court. Long a favorite of Kate's, Elizabeth is fresh and curious, not oblivious to Seymour's flirtatiousness. It is Elizabeth's presence in the household that the Duchess of Suffolk questions, as well as Thomas' motives in marrying Parr. To anyone with knowledge of the Seymour's in Henry VIII's England, Thomas hardly stands out as a beacon of loyalty, courage or honor. An attractive, scheming man does not necessarily a good husband make.
History tells us that Parr dies in childbirth, the young Elizabeth the subject of much contention in the Seymour household, coveted by Thomas, protected and trusted by Kate, the girl's grand fate yet to be played out on the world stage, as well as Thomas's end. The problems in the marriage and her own particulars are related by the Duchess of Suffolk, the chapters filled with the duchess's musings, judgments and personal failures. My problem is that the author uses the most cursory details to support her novel, reaching for a kind of intimacy that is unfettered by substance. The lack of detail becomes tedious: "the formidable queen Margaret Beaufort and the sparkling new Spanish one"; "women had had a setback, we'd come through difficult times"; "the locking away of one queen and the execution of the next".
The author makes clear that she chose to write historical fiction in this manner, but I read such fiction for the period details and political issues of the era. Without that background, the specifics of time and place, this is a novel about two women, a love affair and a betrayal, ultimately rendering the story dull. Katherine Parr's tragic life is interesting because she was married to Henry VIII, because she died in childbirth and married a roué with more than love on his mind. History literally defines some characters and their relevance to the times they inhabit. Dunn seems not to appreciate this fact; the result, a novel without spark or curiosity. Luan Gaines/ 2008.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Flatters to Deceive, August 14, 2007
Having recently read five Tudor novels, (my interest being piqued by The Innocent Traitor = a splendid read,) I bought this treatise on the relationship between Catherine Parr, Catherine of Suffolk and Thomas Seymour. The style was altogether too light and historical details few and far between. If I'm reading historical fiction then I need a strong narrative drive and a generous flavouring of recognizable characters. This failed on both counts. I was left with a very dissapointing 'Mills and Boon' aftertaste and the thought that too little thought had gone into this piece of whimsy. Not recommended.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
"Sixth Wife" Barely Worth Six Minutes, July 27, 2009
This review is from: The Sixth Wife: A Novel (Paperback)
It's rare for me to dislike a book about Tudor England. It's even rarer for me to read a book about Tudor England and feel as if my time was stolen from me. But rare or not, that's exactly what happened when I finished reading Suzannah Dunn's book "The Sixth Wife".
Describing the life of Katherine Parr--sixth and final wife to Henry VIII--after Henry's death, "The Sixth Wife" attempts to explain Parr's marriage to the roguish Thomas Seymour, her ensuing pregnancy (her first), and the misery that happened because of it. While Dunn keeps to a historically accurate timeline in "The Sixth Wife", she takes the creative liberty of throwing Thomas Seymour and Catherine, Duchess of Suffolk, together in an affair.
The dramatic tension in "The Sixth Wife" is supposed to come from the fact that Suffolk and Parr are best friends, with Suffolk betraying Parr in one of the worst ways possible. While that might have worked in another story, or even the story Dunn was trying to tell, it had nearly no effect whatsoever on making "The Sixth Wife" more interesting, nor did it add any depth to the characters. In fact, it merely served to make Suffolk--the narrator of the story--even more simpering and unlikeable than she was at the beginning of the story.
While there can be no denying that Suffolk had a difficult life--sold as a ward to the aging Duke of Suffolk, married by 14 and a mother twice over by 16--Dunn has her do little else but recount the early difficulties of her life throughout "The Sixth Wife". While her unceasing mentions of being a wife and mother when she was a mere child herself are meant to add some kind of depth or meaning to Suffolk, it loses its effect quickly. And despite her own hardships, Suffolk comes off as cold and uncaring and uses her hardships as a crutch to avoid personal responsibility.
One such responsibility is her affair with Seymour. While she claims to feel bad about what she is doing to Parr (while Parr is pregnant and looking to her for guidance, no less), she claims that she cannot help herself, and that Seymour is the only one who can see who she really is. But as events unfold throughout the story, Suffolk eventually comes to despise Seymour and decides that she will do anything to prevent Parr from discovering her affair with him. While Suffolk claims that it is for Parr's sake, it is obvious that it is for her own comfort. When she isn't busy convincing herself that she is trying to protect Parr from the ugly truth, she convinces herself that she deserves to be happy with Seymour because of the difficult life she's endured.
"The Sixth Wife", like the events it's based on, does not end happily. Readers can expect to find Parr descending into a kind of madness after birthing her child (she dies not long after) and being lied to by both Seymour and Suffolk on her deathbed. While the story could have ended there, Dunn spends the last chapter of the story showing what has become of Seymour--currently imprisoned--and the heartless way that Suffolk says the words that she knows will condemn him to death.
I really wanted to like this book; I was excited that Dunn was tackling the life of Parr and not the events surrounding Elizabeth and Thomas Seymour after the death of Henry VIII. In those stories, Parr is always a secondary character, and audiences get to know very little of her. But despite its name, I found "The Sixth Wife" to be no different; while the story did center more on Parr than those that I have previously read, it focused primarily on Suffolk, her emotions, and how Parr looked through her eyes.
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