Customer Reviews

Virgin's Lover

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(50)
2 star:		(40)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

Don't be fooled by the cover; this book is not written on the same level as the author's similarly covered books, "The Other Bolyn Girl" and "The Queen's Fool". She has dumbed down her writing style for this book, I can only assume on a dare, to the level of pulp romance. Maybe it was meant for a 5th grade age level? Maybe this is her way of getting back at an agent who urged her to write a more romantic book? The characters are totally one dimensional; no one has any personality or motives outside of a romance novel stereotype; Elizabeth is a "giggling" blushing dimwit who "giggles" to everyone in almost every piece of dialogue. There is no description of anything or anyone, outside of the ubiquitous word "pretty". The writing is loaded with cliches, and in fact "pretty" appears in virtually every paragraph. At one point, Cecil speaks "sweetly" to Roberty Dudley. Ooooo kay. The love scenes come right out of "Top 10 phrases for romance writing" checklists. Utterly boring at best, and cringeworthy at worst. Seriously, fans of Wideacre and other Gregory books will wonder what is up the minute they begin reading. There is an inexplicable "cameo" by "The Queen's Fool" protagonist Hannah Green that goes absolutely nowhere. it is hard to imagine that this is the same author who created multi-dimensional characters in her other books. I have no idea what happened, but the writing style is markedly different, and downright horrible. If you want a book about Elizabeth that gives a romantic liason with Dudley, try "I, Elizabeth" by Rosalind Miles but steer clear of this wholly uninspired, dumbed down book.

This is romantic historical fiction at its finest, replete with an abundance of period detail. The focus of the book is the romantic triangle involving the newly crowned tempestuous Queen, Elizabeth I, her lover and Master of Horse, Sir Robert Dudley, and his long suffering wife, Amy, whose dreams of a simple life with her husband are shattered with Elizabeth's rise to the throne upon the death of her half-sister, Queen Mary.

There is also a cat and mouse game involving Elizabeth, her Secretary of State, the canny and shrewd William Cecil, and Robert Dudley, which develops as it becomes clear that Dudley has his heart on becoming King and ruling alongside Elizabeth as an equal, something that can only be accomplished through marriage to Elizabeth.

Unfortunately for Sir Robert Dudley, his wife, Amy, a secret Catholic, has no intention of divorcing him. Moreover, Elizabeth has no intention of letting Dudley rule as King rather than just being King consort, were they to someday wed. Yet, she is in a quandary, as she finds herself unable to resist Dudley's charms and can refuse him nothing. Elizabeth turns to William Cecil for help in saving her from herself. William Cecil knows all too well that marriage to a Dudley would be disastrous for England, as Dudley, being the Queen's favorite, is one of the most unpopular men at court with the other courtiers. Moreover, the Dudley family, though a powerful and ancient lineage, has a treasonous history.

What Cecil devises is diabolical but plausible. This twist in the tale is certainly an ingenious way of explaining a mysterious death, a death that has never been satisfactorily explained by historians. It is a death that certainly served to cast a pall upon Dudley's ambitions and ensured that he and Elizabeth would never wed. It also ensured that the canny William Cecil would be the most powerful person in England, excepting Elizabeth.

This is a wonderful tale of the Tudor Court and the beginning of the Elizabethan era. There are those readers, however, who may find it difficult to reconcile the histrionic and besotted, love-struck Elizabeth of this work of fiction with the more familiar image of Elizabeth as the self-reliant and strong willed Queen Regnant. Those who enjoyed the author's book, "The Other Boleyn Girl", will surely enjoy this one. Set against a backdrop of political intrigues, it is a well-written, well-researched work of romantic historical fiction that will keep the reader turning the pages.

Three pages into "The Virgin's Lover" and I suspected that I was onto a winner: I was right! With delicacy and ease, Philippa Gregory has once again penned another enthralling and beguiling tale, this time set during Elizabeth I's first year as queen, ably presenting all the political difficulties that the young queen and her advisors faced (at home and abroad) that first year, the forbidden love affair that developed between Elizabeth and her Master of Horse and childhood friend, Robert Dudley, and presenting us with her own idea as to how Amy Robsart, Robert's wife, died.

Robert Dudley always believed that he and his family were destined for greatness. But the past years, following the ill fated attempt to make Lady Jane Grey (the widow of Edward VI) queen and her second husband, Guilford Dudley, king, have been hard ones for the surviving Dudleys -- Robert in particular. For an ambitious man, used to power and court life, being stripped of his titles, land and wealth, has been particularly unbearable. And he is also beginning to realise that his choice of wife, the slightly older, uneducated and totally unambitious Amy Robsart, may have been a disastrous one. And then in 1558, Queen Mary dies without issue, and names her half-sister, Elizabeth as heir to the throne. For Robert, this means only one thing: his star is on the rise again. As he quickly settles into life at court again, he begins to realise that the new queen, his childhood friend, needs guidance in a great many things, guidance he is only to happy to give much to the dismay of Elizabeth's other advisors. William Cecil in particular. Cecil is at his wit's end as to how to thwart Robert's influence over the queen which seems to grow each day. Worse, Cecil is beginning to suspect that the queen has fallen in love with the strikingly handsome and debonair Dudley. Fortunately Dudley is already married, so that Cecil doesn't have to face the awful possibility that Elizabeth will demand that she be allowed to marry Dudley. But what Cecil doesn't know is that Robert Dudley has already began to think about putting his wife aside so that he can marry the queen. A task easily accomplished now that Elizabeth is head governor of the Church of England. Will Robert get his way? Will Elizabeth help him achieve his dream of kingship? And what will happen to Amy Robsart? As the country already bankrupt by the previous queen teeters between war and scandal, Elizabeth and Dudley continue their mad dance that could spell the end of the Tudor reign over England...

For me, "The Virgin's Lover" proved to be as wonderful a read as "The Other Boleyn Girl." Historically speaking everything covered in "The Virgin's Lover" is old ground -- nothing earth-shatteringly new revealed is revealed in this novel. But what makes "The Virgin's Lover" a fantastic and completely absorbing read is how the author brings characters and events to life. Vividly and grimly, Ms Gregory conveys what a young man used to wielding power must have felt when faced with ruin and low fortune, after his father's execution and the loss of all his wealth. Accurately she paints the ruthless Dudley need to succeed and his ache for power; and poignantly she paints the unhappy marriage of Amy Robsart, a young unambitous and uneducated woman, married and still in love with a younger man who no longer feels anything but irritation for her. Also nicely done is manner in which she presents, as a background, a country torn apart by religious wrangling and poverty, and titillated by the latest royal scandal. As soon as I saw "The Virgin's Lover" on the shelving cart, I knew that I had to read the book at once. From the first page to the last, Philippa Gregory held me captive. "The Virgin's Lover" was a fantastic read, and one that I cannot recommend highly enough.

I was sorely disappointed in this book, having heard from several people how good it was. Unlike most of the nonfiction work I have read, Queen Elizabeth is made out in this story to be an indecisive romantic simpleton who had to be lead to every important decision she made by the men surrounding her. Instead of masterfully playing the field to keep alliances as most historians feel she did, she is portrayed as whining and indecisive about her lovelife as well, controlled totally by Robert Dudley and William Cecil. I found this book almost insulting in it's lack of strong feminine characters - and here is one of the strongest, most heroic female characters of her age. If you are looking for a hot romance book - this is it. If you want a good piece of historical fiction about Queen Elizabeth I then read Alison Weir.

I am only about 3/4th into the book, and boy am I glad I didn't actually pay anything for it! I can't believe that Ms Gregory portrayed Elizabeth this way... I am going to keep reading because I want to at least get to the part when Amy Robsart falls down the stairs and see how the author handles that ... I am really surprised that a female author would portray all her women characters this way, including even Elizabeth. It sounds like a mysogenist wrote this book - the female characters are all so unlikable and even pathetic! It's really too bad because Philippa Gregory is a popular author (although for the life of me I really can't figure out why) and many people think that her stories are historically accurate....

This delightful story is about the early days of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I of England. I'd suggest that first you watch the movie Shekhar Kapur's 1998 film Elizabeth in conjunction with the book. The film is about Elizabeth taking over as Queen, and taking Sir Robert Dudley as a lover.

This book is about the same time frame, but written more from the side of Sir Robert and particularly that of his wife Amy. This is a novel, after all who can really report on the detailed conversations between people so long ago. But it is exhaustively researched to give both the actual events and more especially the tone of the times when a young virgin queen took over a bankrupt country, riven by enmity, where treason is normal and foreign war a certainty and dissension between Catholics and Protestants tore at the very foundation of society.

I loved The Queen's Fool, and The Other Boleyn Girl, but this book was a disappointment. Gregory's Elizabeth is week and lovesick, her Robert Dudley is self seeking and manipulative, and her Amy Dudly is annoying. Basically, all the characters are unsympathetic. I'm shocked by this since all the characters in her other books are complex and interesting.

For a better Elizabeth I and Dudley love story, check out "I, Elizabeth" by Rosalind Miles.

Looking at the back covers of Gregory's books, I see she has a degree in 18th century literature and a long list of books to her credit. I'm sure she is a fine scholar and writer in her area. Writing about Tudor England, however, is not her strength. Aside from the glaring factual errors (which many reviewers have noted both in this book and others, most notably The Other Boleyn Girl), she just doesn't get the 16th century worldview across. There are anachronisms, both small (riding sidesaddle) and large (false assumptions about the range of literacy and religious practices of the time). These books would be fine reading for someone totally unfamiliar with the period (like the author herself), but for some reason she also seems bent on assassinating the reputations of every notable female political figure on Tudor England. Here Elizabeth is the shallow, histrionic puppet so many (male) 19th century historians dismissed her as (though what else could we expect from the horribly shrewish Anne Boleyn in Gregory's previous work?), and all the good ideas are really Cecil's. Come on! I think it's fitting that only the heroines' torsos are pictured on the covers, to indicate that Gregory's stories and characterizations are entire physical. Thy're more about the costumes and weak-romance-novel intrigue; we never truly get into anyone's mind.

And yes, I know it's fiction. But why bother to write historical fiction if so much of the history is wrong? (Not "open to question"--just plain wrong.) Why not write about a fictional queen?

I loved "The Other Boleyn Girl" when I read it last year, especially because of the interesting topic. It was with great anticipation then that I picked up this book, especially having read several Elizabeth biographies. This book wasn't nearly as good.

First, the historical accuracy isn't so good. One glaring mistake: the book has Elizabeth coronated in March, not November.

Second, the characters are really annoying. The Elizabeth here is weak and whiny, not how she was in real life. Robert Dudley is impossible to like. Amy is the worst though. All she does is whine about how much she loves Robert and how horrible Elizabeth is, not showing any will at all. Cecil is the only one to like.

Third, towards the end of the book, it just drags on and on. The readers know that Amy is going to die, so why prolong the inevitable? That, coupled with the endless "I love yous" from Robert and Elizabeth made me just stop reading then and there.

I highly recommend The Other Boleyn Girl, but not this book.

I finally reviewed my favorite book on Elizabeth, "Legacy" by Susan Kay, so I needed to sit down and review my most reviled book on her. That is "The Virgin's Lover".

This book just horrified me. Not merely because I KNOW Ms. Gregory is a better writer than this. Don't get me wrong, I disagree strongly with her portrayal of Anne Boleyn as the embodiment of all that's evil in the world, but I still respected her work. This novel was simply hideous. The weakest, most simpering, spineless portrayal of Elizabeth I think I've ever read.

She doesn't know her way around court? Come on! CECIL doesn't know his way around court? They both have to be helped by the grand Robert Dudley?

I suspected when I read this that Ms. Gregory's lost without a spineless, bland, innocent-to-the-point-of-stupidity character to tell her story for her. However, Wideacre (told from the POV of a clear sociopath) was a good book.

I can only second those who have suggested someone is ghostwriting books in her name now. There is no excuse for "The Virgin's Lover."