Customer Reviews

The WISE WOMAN

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(22)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

Having already read The Other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool, The Virgin's Lover and Earthly Joys, I hardly thought this one would compare. How wrong I was! I was so captivated by Alys', the main character's, plight. I was at first outraged and then empathetic of her decisions, remembering she was a mere immature seventeen year-old. How can anyone fault her - given the medieval times this story would have taken place. I was captivated by the politics, religion (which were both one and the same), witchcraft, and especially the sexuality, which was quite descriptive (dare I say Hot?)

The end of the story was the biggest surprise of all. So tender and moving were the last pages, I re-read them and teared up both times. I immediately wrote this review, my first ever.

This book is extremely dark - its subject matter is pretty bleak and the characters are often rather twisted... but it is nonetheless a riveting read. The Wise Woman tells the story of Alys, an orphan who has been shuffled from house to house throughout her childhood. Alys' first home is with Morach, her town's local witch. Morach is cruel to Alys, and Alys soon finds refuge in the local nunnery. As she prepares to take her final vows, the nunnery is burnt to the ground. Alys flees the fire - leaving her sisters in Christ to burn to death - and is forced to start her life anew. Her travels lead her to the castle near her home, working as an apothecary to the lord of the manor. There she meets the lord's attractive son, discovers her own witchy powers... and finds herself sorely tempted to break her vows. This book is a fscainting story, very well told... the only downside is the sexual imagery is very explicit, and often rather perverse. If you can overlook that... this book is great!

OK, I really love her books, but this one really was early on in her career. It starts out well enough with the main character, Elys, being an escapee of a nunnary that was ransacked. She escapes and does not aid her mentor and adopted mother which then haunts Elys. So, she goes back to her old "mother" who is a wise woman, healer etc. and begins to dally in the dark arts. Elys gets to go to the big castle to aide the ailing master ((not the king of England)) but the big land keeper of that area. She gains importance in the castle and then takes to his son and more dark arts follow.

Gregory really is a master storyteller and I do love her work, but I didn't love all of this book. I mean, when Alys' wax figures become real and when an important character has a wax miscarraige, due to her dark arts, I find this the Steve King part of the book and completely rediculous.

This book reminds me most of Wideacre and The King's Fool, but with an really odd, rather science fiction kind of twist.

That said, I did like the ending, which I won't reveal, and I do recommend you check out the book and read it, but skim the wax doll parts as I think all of that just detracts from the book. I wish she could rewrite and edit all that out, and she'd have a smashing book.

This is a brilliant dark story of a young girl and her quest to live like a queen. She wants the prize of 'lady of the house' and will stop at nothing to get it. She uses her power to reach for her dreams, only to realise that the prize wasn't hers. She is a false woman, and slowly becomes entrapped in her own lies.

Despite the bleakness of the story and the wickedness of Alys, I still liked her! She felt she was destined for an important role, and went out to claim it. She sought love and didn't know what to do with it when she had it. As l was approaching the last few pages of the story I was wondering how on earth it could end, I was so looking forward to the birth of her child etc.

I am currently making my way through all of Philippa Gregory's books. Her novels, both historical and comtemporay are always so vivid and the endings never fail to be anything but thought provoking. Keep writing, because l will certainly keep reading!

I loved this book. What a real character, full of flaws. What a pretty 16 year old nun who suddenly finds herself in the real world in the time of Henry VIII might actually do. Not mature enough to make good decisions, selfish and wicked enough to wish people harm and definitely immature enough to not realize that there is a reaction to every action. Well done. I have waited a year of reading two books a month to find a book like this! Thank you Ms. Gregory for the tale of a central character so full and rich I stayed up all night reading to finish it.

I mistakeningly bought this thinking it was a "new" Gregory novel. Then I looked at the copyright date and discovered this was one of her earliest. It should have been left on the out of print list rather than being resurrected. The book drones on and on, often using nearly identical sentences and phrases -- poor job on the part of the editors. The book could easily be 50 pages shorter. It is so unrealistic, the characters are uninspiring and dull. I loathed continuing the read but kept hoping it would get better. My husband usually reads the Gregory books and I told him to not waste his time with this one. Such a disappointment compared to her other fantastic novels.

I've read almost all of Gregory's book about the royals (including The Queen's Fool) but none of her other work. I have to say, I hope her other series isn't as disappointing as this one was. The main character was scattered all over the place: she's good, she's bad, she accepts her power, she shuns it: make up your mind, already! You're supposed to be The Wise Woman. It says so on the cover.

Maybe that's the deliberate irony coming into play? (gag cough). Uh, no. Unfortunately, this scattered persona contagion spreads to just about every main character in the book. For example, the Young Lord: he loves her, he doesn't love her, he's sincere, he's a cad. Oh, pick one already.

The plot wanders about listlessly with the occasional softcore bodice-ripping page or two to pique your interest before finally flinging itself on the merciful suttee of a conclusion. But I suspect once you close the back cover, you'll feel this was (2, 4, 6?) hours of your life you'll wish you could get back again - to read one of her much-better written historical novels instead.

While this book is not like her other historical fictions, it is still one of the best books I have read in a long time. I loved it so much I bought one for my Mom, Aunt and best friend, all of them also loved it. This book is a little twisted, but in a very real way. You can completely relate with the main character as she makes one bad decision after another that leads her down a trail of witchcraft, seduction, betrayal and deciept... The historical information is there but more importantly and more outstanding is the fantastic tale that is woven from the day a little girl takes her first steps alone all the way to the final leap as she realizes what is truely important... I don't understand why those other two reviews were so bad. If you like Anne Rice or Wilbur Smith's writing you'll love this. All the great story writing of both without the overly boring descriptives that can drag on in Rice's work or the lack there of in Smith's.

This well written, compelling story completely drew me in. The intricate weave of history with richly imaginative narrative provided me with a captivating read. Yet my personal hopes for the book as a student myself of the history of western women in medicine were dismayed. The story is not an honorable or even accurate portrayal of the women who served as primary health care providers in their communities for untold generations as healers, counselors, midwives, herbalists - those commonly referred to as wise women. It does, however, accurately capture a period of time where womens power was grotesquely feared and became associated with a widespread notion of evil - no doubt at times even by women themselves who were left only with vestiges of the old ways. One wonders if the author herself sadly confuses womens ancient power with negative manipulation as its basis rather than life-affirming, nurturing, and directed strength. Although a wonderfully told story, it is not at all about a woman of wisdom, but about a foolish girl with a dangerous little bit of knowledge making fantastical trouble for herself and others. While highly entertaining, it does not deserve the title.

I am generally a fan of Philippa Gregory and have enjoyed reading her historical fiction as great vacation escape novels. However, The Wise Woman left me wondering if it was, indeed, written by the same author. In addition to having an extremely contrived plot, a totally anticipated ending and some fairly twisted horror, this book had no redeeming characters. There was not one character in this entire novel I was rooting for and there were several times I toyed with simply closing the book and walking away out of total apathy for the outcome. I continued to the end simply to make sure my earlier assessment wasn't incorrect. But, having finished this total miss on Gregory's part, I have to say this time the author was unwise and so was I to spend time reading it! Perhaps the fact that it was an earlier effort had something to do with the undeveloped characters who all turned out to be despicable folks. By the end, who cared what happened?