Customer Reviews

The White Queen (Large Print Press)

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I have been anxiously awaiting the new Philippa Gregory book THE WHITE QUEEN. Like many, I enjoyed THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL; however, I didn't exactly love the last book that I read by Ms. Gregory. I was sincerely hoping that THE WHITE QUEEN would love up to all its advance billing. After reading it (or you could say devouring it), I am so excited to say that Ms. Gregory is back. I loved THE WHITE QUEEN!

THE WHITE QUEEN is the first book in The Cousins' War Series. You can't see me, but I'm doing a little happy dance because that means there will be two more books about the Plantagenets -- THE RED QUEEN and THE WHITE PRINCESS. I am already excited about the release of the next book because I felt as if I was kind of left hanging at the end of THE WHITE QUEEN. I don't mean that in a negative way and I'm sure it was the author's intent, but I want to know what happens next!

While I definitely enjoy historical fiction, I am sadly lacking in knowledge about England and its Monarchy. As a result, I knew almost nothing about the Plantagenets except for a few small things that appeared as side stories in other novels. I can't tell you how much of this story is fact versus fiction; and frankly, I don't even care. I was fascinated by the story Ms. Gregory told about these characters' lives. THE WHITE QUEEN is better than any televised drama or movie I've ever seen. These characters are smart, determined, and ruthless; and I just loved reading about them.

I thought THE WHITE QUEEN had a little bit of everything; and I'm sure there is something in Elizabeth Woodville' s story that will capture your attention. First, THE WHITE QUEEN is just a fabulous historical story about the Cousins' War. There are so many scenes where brother is pitted against brother for control; and the characters involved have absolutely no idea who they can and can not trust. It was a great, suspenseful ride for the reader too! I also thoroughly enjoyed how Ms. Gregory used facts to tell the story while also embellishing the mysteries and holes in the characters' lives to make a very readable story. I realize that Ms. Gregory picked some fascinating people to write about, but a whole lot of credit goes to her for being such an amazing storyteller.

Another part of this story that will keep many readers entertained is the magical and sorcery elements. Elizabeth is said to be the descendant of a mythical water creature called Melusina. Ms. Gregory incorporated the myth of Melusina into the novel and actually used it as a recurring theme/symbol throughout the story. In addition, Elizabeth's mother practiced some examples witchcraft. Some people actually claimed that Elizabeth's mother put a spell on Edward to make him fall in love with her daughter. The character of Elizabeth also had premonitions about certain things and places in her life. She always had a bad feeling that something awful would occur in the Black Tower.

One of my favorite elements of the THE WHITE QUEEN was the love story angle. It seemed to me as if there was a perfect blend of romance and history in this book. Not only did THE WHITE QUEEN show the love affair between Elizabeth and Edward, but this book is also demonstrated the love between mothers and their children. More than once, I was amazed by what women did to protect their children especially in the case of Elizabeth and her sons.

THE WHITE QUEEN would make an excellent book club pick. In fact, if your group enjoys historical fiction like mine does, then you should definitely consider this book in the very near future. One added bonus is that the book is around 400 pages (shorter than many historical novels), and it is not at all overwhelming in scope. There is a great reading guide with fifteen questions that really allow you to delve into Elizabeth's life and her actions. Some of the topics for discussion include mother/daughter relationships, moral dilemmas, adultery, betrayal, and witchcraft. There is also a very interesting interview with Ms. Gregory that gives you some insight into the background of this novel.

The White Queen opens in 1464, on the day that Elizabeth Woodville meets Edward IV, the man who has just recently been crowned King of England. In the attempt to gain back the lands she lost when her husband died, Elizabeth catches the eye of the young king, and becomes Queen of England herself--and eventually, the mother of kings and queens of England.

I have mixed feelings about this book.

Here's what I didn't like so much:
--The fact that the book is written in the present tense. Gregory started writing this way sometime around The Boleyn Inheritance, and it gets on my nerves sometimes because I feel that using the present tense for historical fiction is so limiting.
--The water imagery got to be a bit much-too-much at times. It was beautiful at first, but the fact that Elizabeth kept talking about her ancestress, the water goddess/nymph Melusina, began to get tired after a while.
--Although Gregory is great in general at describing the events of the time periods of which she writes, she's not so good as describing how people actually lived--as with her previous novels, there's very little about what her characters wear, eat, or do in their free time. It's the little bits and pieces that make characters come to life, make them three-dimensional.
--Reading Sharon Kay Penman has seemingly made me pro-Richard III for life, so I was a little disappointed by Gregory's vilification of him in the book (though of course, when the story is told from the point of view of Elizabeth Woodville, of course Richard would be portrayed in a negative light).
--About halfway through the book, Gregory switches from 1st person POV to 3rd, in order to talk about some of the decisive battles of the Wars. I can understand her intent, but it was jarring to me to go back and forth.

However, I think The White Queen is a vast improvement over Gregory's previous book, The Other Queen. Elizabeth is much more of a three-dimensional character, as are the other people that populate the novel. I was also a lot more engaged by the story--mostly because the story of the War of the Roses is more interesting than that of Mary, Queen of Scot's captivity! Elizabeth generally has a bad rep, but here she comes across as a sympathetic woman, strong and courageous at a time when the times moved against her. Gregory uses her imagination a lot more in this novel, because there's so much less documentation to work from. I think it's a good thing that Gregory has moved away from writing about the Tudors (at least for the time being); the Plantagenets are a breath of breath air on Gregory's writing, which was in the process of getting stale.

As usual, Philippa Gregory spins an engrossing tale around fascinating characters in the history of England's royal family. My only basis for comparison is "The Other Boleyn Girl," a story I enjoyed more, simply because I found the history more interesting.

I have two chief complaints about the novel: one I recall feeling while reading "The Other Boleyn Girl," and the other I do not. The first complaint is her repetition. I realize that some authors use this as a literary device, but some facts I felt she repeated way more often than was necessary. Melusina this and locket that. They were important bits of the story, but she could have let us remember them on our own sometimes. The other complaint is that, at times, I felt the book read a little like non-fiction, just a recounting of the events from one character's point of view, and not as much a novel.

Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that it's interesting what she does with the "Princes in the Tower," and the end is abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying (for a person who knows the history).

Overall, however, I enjoyed reading the book and I liked delving into the Plantagenet dynasty. It has inspired me to pick up other books on the period, and I look forward to her next one.

The White Queen is the first book in the new trilogy called The Cousin's War by self declared historian Philippa Gregory. It centres around Elizabeth Woodville, mother of the Prince's in the Tower and grandmother of Henry VIII.

The book begins with the legendary meeting of Elizabeth and Edward- under an oak tree on the side of the road, where she begs the new young King to return her confiscated dower lands to her so she can provide an inheritance for her sons by Lord Grey, a man who chose the wrong side in the War between King Henry VI and the usurper Edward. He promptly falls in love with her and they secretly marry- but is it true love or just another enchantment? What follows is a series of 'wars' as Edward and co fight to keep the throne. Elizabeth naturally pops out a few kiddly winks here and there and vwalah! You have enough content to call it a book. As you can probably already guess, magic and sorcery abound in this dodgy interpretation of history- it's like historical fiction Harry Potter. Spell this, enchantment that. Blah blah blah.

Elizabeth and her family are supposedly descended from the water goddess Melusine- and don't worry, PG won't let you forget that. Every other page has some mention of Melusine, and failing that, will mention either a) the locket, or b) her enemies, or c) her witchcraft. I had a hard time sympathising with Elizabeth- she is constantly whinging about Edward having to go off and fight to keep their throne, and she is filled with hate about those that betray or go against them, forgetting of course the fact that she herself was a "turncoat"- originally a Lancastrian who married the Yorkist King for the benefits it would bring her. Supposedly they love each other, but Gregory doesn't seem to be able to write several storylines at once, and as a result, the love isn't really there- which considering some of her previous books, could be a blessing in disguise really.

The writing is definately improved on her last two books; the Boleyn Inheritance and the Other Queen, but unfortunately is riddled with so many historical inaccuracies and implausible plot lines that I found it rather difficult to enjoy this novel on the whole. First off, witchcraft. In this book Elizabeth (and her mother)is so blatantly obviously involved with it that I find it really hard to believe that no one noticed and more to the point, no one cared. In this particular era when religion was everything and people accused of witchcraft were either burnt at the stake or strangled at a crossroads I also find it hard to believe that Edward, as King, was cool with it. Ie-

Elizabeth-"Oh, more people have turned against you? I shall cast a spell on them"
Edward- "No problem, honey, what's for dinner?"

Obviously, I am taking the mickey out of the book, and the above passage was not actually in it, but you get the point. Another inaccuracy that stuck with me (there were so many that I can only remember a few) was Elizabeth's palace of Nonsuch. This was pointed out to me by a friend before I got to that part, but a bit of history for you- Nonsuch was built by Henry VIII some 50 years later, and was so named because there was None Such like it- get it, Nonsuch? :) Richard III is stereotypically characterised and the Duke of Clarence's (Edward's other brother) demise is for the most part hilarious. Normally this sort of inaccuracy wouldn't really bother me, but I'm indignant because Philippa Gregory has at the back of the book an interview where she states that she tries to stick to the facts as much as possible and rarely deviates.

Now, I don't personally know a great deal about the period, but I know enough to know that she got a lot of things wrong, especially since she claims to be a renowned historian (when she isn't), and her stating at the back that her version is the closest to the truth that we (as readers) are ever going to get annoyed the heck out of me.

All in all, for fans of Gregory's work this book will probably be a good one to add to the collection- it is, as I previously stated, an improvement on her past few books, and is a fairly decent start to a new series. It is told in first person present tense from Elizabeth's view for the most part, with the exception being when Gregory changes to third person to give more detail to battles and 'unwomanly things'. Of course, she could always have just kept it as first person and had the witchy Elizabeth know the future as well, but maybe she felt that was a bit too 'unbelieveable' and fantastical for her historical fiction. Her character's for the most part stick to stereotypical moulds and to be honest the book itself is just 'not that interesting'. The chapters are short (some are only 1 page long) and the language is extremely repetitive and annoying- we get the point, just how dumb does she think her readers are?

Should you want more knowledge about this period, historical fiction that I really enjoyed was Posie Graeme-Evan's trilogy about a fictional character who becomes mistress to Edward IV- naturally, Elizabeth is mostly unlikable (I am yet to find any versions that have her as a normal flawed human being- she lost her sons, for crying out loud, be compassionate people!) but the book's themselves were brilliant, in my opinion. Non fiction, Anne Okerlund's biography of Elizabeth Woodville is scholarly and well written with an unbiased look at the life of this much maligned Queen of England.

2 stars.

The White Queen is the story of Elizabeth Woodville, wife of King Edward IV. This marks the start of a new series: Philippa Gregory has left the Tudors behind (although not so far away, being only some 25 years before the marriage of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII).

It's a tumultuous period in English history and Gregory struggles to incorporate all the events. At times she needs to resort to writing in the third person rather than Elizabeth's narrative, at others she skips years at a time. The early section in particular blends into one long war montage that becomes confusing. It doesn't help also that so many key players have the same name (George, Richard, Margaret). There is a family tree at the beginning of the book but it is incomplete and somewhat unclear (unless Henry VI married Edmund Tudor?)

With so much going on, the book becomes too plot driven and character development is secondary. For example, at the beginning of the book Elizabeth and Edward meet, fall immediately in love and marry secretly. The problem is that you don't ever feel like you're reading a love story. We don't know much about Elizabeth (she's widowed, but we never get any sense of what her relationship with her first husband was like), nor what she sees in the King. It feels like they get married only because that's what actually happened, rather than because of who the characters were and how they felt.

Throughout the book, the characters are all one dimensional and can all be pigeon-holed in a word (think "scheming" or "unhinged" or "placid"). None of them, not even Elizabeth, have the complexity that real people have - especially if you consider that the book takes place over 20 years. And then those character traits get reinforced to us repeatedly - I felt like Elizabeth had exactly the same conversations with her husband, brother and mother over and over.

I was somewhat bored in the first half, but I enjoyed the second half more, when the frenetic pace slows. It is after all a very interesting period in history, but the book is...just okay. (Certainly it's better than The Other Queen: A Novel). Be warned also that it ends very abruptly: just stopping in the middle of the story, blatantly setting the reader up for the next installment.

I enjoyed the Tudor series. However, it did seem that each book following "The Other Boleyn Girl" was progressively worse, ending with the travesty that was "The Other Queen." I so wanted to like this book.

First off - it is very confusing. I know a lot of English history, but was constantly confused. If you knew nothing about English history, I think you'd be totally flummoxed. The map and family tree at the front of the book were not helpful at all.

Second, the writing was AWFUL. I've read some of the stories my 13 year old writes and she is a Pulitzer Prize winning author compared to most of the conversations between the characters in this book. The dialog is repetitious to the point of beyond nauseating. It goes a little something like this, and I am NOT exagerrating:

"Darling, is your meat exceptionaly chewy?" I paused and chewed my meat for a moment. "Yes, dear," I replied, "the meat is very chewy. Very chewy indeed. In fact, I agree that it is exceptionally chewy." Edward looked at me for a moment while chewing and chewing his meat. "Darling, I think that I have never encountered anything like the chewiness of this chewy meat since that particularly chewy rack of lamb I had back in 1465." I returned Edward's amourous look while I continued to chew and chew and chew my particularly and extraordinarily chewy meat. "Yes, dear, that chewy rack of lamb back in 1465 was exceptionally chewy. In fact, that was a very strong year for exceptionally chewy meat. But this is nowhere near as chewy as the chewiful chewiness of the particularly chewy brisket we had a Blackfriars in 1469." "Really?" Edward paused while working and chewing a particularly chewy piece of meat in his mouth. "Well, you may have a point, but the chewiness of this chewy meat is so chewy that I don't think I can chew it any more."

If they really talked like that back in the 1400s, no wonder that they all wanted to kill each other. Remove all of the repetitive words and sentences from this book and it would be 60-70 pages shorter. Who do you blame - the writer that writes something like this or the editor who fails to fix it?

Do yourself a favor. DON'T BUY THIS BOOK. I wouldn't even recommend that you check it out of the library.

While I enjoy reading Gregory's books because they're decently entertaining for the most part I do wish she'd quit insisting she was such a wonderful historian. This book was better than the last one but it wasn't outstanding.

This covers a time period of about 20 years (give or take a few) starting from when Edward and Elizabeth Woodville meet up until its almost time for Bosworth Field. This could have been a very good book but there were a few things that really irritated me. The first issue I had was the constant repeating of certain aspects of the story she obviously didn't want the reader to forget. She refers to Edward repeatedly as a "boy" for several chapters at the beginning (yes, a 20something young man can certainly act like a boy but technically would not be considered one). By about the third chapter I felt like if she mentioned Elizabeth's family connection to Melusina one more time I was going to go hop in a fountain somewhere. She also couldn't keep Elizabeth from constantly referring to the fact that she had Warkwick and George's names, in her blood, in her locket, and she would get her revenge. The water imagery got old after a while as well. Really, I got all these points the first time I read them and I don't need to be reminded every couple of paragraphs. While I didn't really have a big problem with the magic element in the story since it wasn't completely over the top, I found myself rolling my eyes quite a bit over the conveniant "let's blow gently out of our lips and a nice storm will blow up somewhere in England or the Channel to stop our enemies." At least she didn't have them in a cellar somewhere huddled over a bubbling pot.

I also really never felt any connection with any of the characters. In TOBG, while I knew there were huge historical inaccuracies, I cared about what happened to the characters. Not so here. I was satisfied with her portrayal of Richard, Duke of Gloucester. She didn't make him seem like a horrible monster but he didn't come across as saintly and as this story was from Elizabeth's POV and she didn't really like Richard at all, I thought that aspect was well done.

As to her being considered such a great historian, one thing really jumped out at me that makes me question how thorough she is with some topics. At one point Elizabeth mentions they're going to Nonsuch Palace. Nonsuch was started by her grandson, Henry VIII. Anyone can go to the internet, type in "Nonsuch Palace" and get this information. Some might consider that a bit nit picky on my part but in my opinion, if you're going to call yourself a great historian, at least have your characters going to places that existed at the time.

Overall, I'm glad I only checked it out of the library. It wasn't horrible by any stretch but I still prefer Sharon Kay Penman's "The Sunne in Splendour" which covers this same time period.

However, I felt Gregory did an extremely poor job with a fascinating period of time. Sharon Kay Penman did it light-years better with The Sunne In Splendour: A Novel of Richard III and if you are familiar with that exceptional book, you fully understand just how bad this novel is.

I never felt I "knew" any of the main players in this novel. Edward, Richard, George, Warwick, etc. are cardboard characters with no depth, no insight into their motivation. Queen Elizabeth comes across as a stubborn, shallow, spiteful woman because we never learn WHY she feels the way she does, or takes the actions she does.

A brief chapter will end in 1478 and the next picks up 4-5 years later, and too many events are never explained or fleshed out. Witchcraft and/or "The Sight" is used FAR too often as the explanation for, well, EVERYTHING. And Gregory depends far too much on the Melusina legend and water imagery, plus Elizabeth's locket and her oath to avenge her father and brother. Gregory relied on metaphor and broad strokes much more than actual historical background.

The Other Boleyn Girl was an excellent historical fiction novel. The White Queen doesn't even seem to be written by the same person. VERY disappointing.

Civil wars are always confusing, and the Wars of the Roses, the gnarly period Philippa Gregory has picked for her latest series, is no exception. Actually, that's the modern name for the conflict; at the time it was called the Cousins' War, reflecting the fact that kinship relations didn't fall neatly along party lines. Those who fought with the house of York (white rose) often had blood-ties to their Lancastrian opponents (red rose), giving new meaning to the phrase family feud. Not only that, but England and France weren't yet distinct national entities. It's all rather murky, so I was glad of the map and family tree printed up front (more detailed diagrams are available on Gregory's ravishingly illustrated website, [...]).

I don't mean to make THE WHITE QUEEN sound like hard historical labor. It's not; it's impassioned and absorbing and, despite some repetitious passages that an editor should have caught, beautifully written. You just have to get your bearings. The plot, actually, is fairly simple. Edward IV (York) meets and marries Elizabeth Woodville, a proud, sexy Lancastrian widow (there is a lot of switching of sides in this book). They have several children, but kings and their heirs don't survive long in these troubled years, and often Elizabeth and her kids are holed up in one sanctuary or another while they wait for the latest battle to be resolved. Along the way, she and her high-born mother, Jacquetta --- descendants of Melusina, the water goddess, and thus gifted with second sight --- dabble in sorcery, casting spells to seduce men and make male babies, and calling down storms and curses on their enemies.

The novel is strongly marked by these two different aspects, the historical and the metaphysical. Its more realistic side retells the Cousins' War from the vantage point not of the men who go into battle but the women who watch and suffer --- and often scheme behind the scenes. Elizabeth is a proto-feminist who, in response to Edward's advances, says things like, "I am not a yard of ribbon. I am not a leg of ham. I am not for sale to anyone." Under the tutelage of her mother, an expert in royal politics, as queen she buys rich marriages and titles for her family, moving people around like chess pieces. (One of the things I love about Gregory's women is that they are never goody-goodies.)

Elizabeth isn't heartless, though, and one of the strongest scenes in the book shows her witnessing a battle, close up, for the first time. She is appalled by the "ugly excitement" on the soldiers' faces and their "wild vicious hunger more like animals than men." She had glorified war, and now she feels like a fool: "I did not know that [it] was nothing more than butchery, as savage and unskilled as sticking a pig in the throat and leaving it to bleed to make the meat tender." Feminists have often suggested that if women ruled the world, there'd be no such thing as war. Gregory would seem to agree.

However, Elizabeth and Jacquetta --- and, later, Elizabeth's daughter and namesake --- fight in their own way, with water-based witchcraft instead of swords and axes. I must admit that this side of THE WHITE QUEEN often seemed silly and unnecessary to me, a bit of trickery that is at odds with the women's actual power and assertiveness.

Gregory has employed supernatural themes in earlier books (notably THE WISE WOMAN, a seriously scary novel), and I suppose that pantheistic deities like Melusina felt more real and immediate to people in the credulous 1400s than they do today. Among other things, these mystical entities were metaphors for weather --- those natural phenomena that humans couldn't (and still can't) completely predict or master. And I think in the context of Gregory's feminism, they also represent women's secret side, the part unknown to their fathers, husbands, brothers (the legend of Melusina, interspersed with THE WHITE QUEEN's main narrative, turns on the fact that she's half fish, half woman).

Besides being a romance and a fantasy and a glimpse into the past, THE WHITE QUEEN addresses a persistent historical mystery: What really happened to Elizabeth Woodville's two sons (Edward's heirs, the famous "princes in the tower")? Did Richard III, Edward's brother, murder them, as Shakespeare's play suggests? Historians now know that drama is not fact --- revisionist accounts of Richard's life maintain that he was neither a hunchback nor a villain --- so the question remains. I won't give away Gregory's speculative scenario, but it's intriguing.

A note to those who are already fans: Gregory has clearly designed this novel to link up with her Tudor series. Again, I don't want to say too much about the denouement, but I assure you that it will be marvelously satisfying to anyone who's been following her habit-forming novels about Henry VIII and his descendants. It is as if English history was an enormous jigsaw puzzle, and Gregory is laying down the landscape, piece by piece, so we can see how it all fits together. Pretty addictive.

--- Reviewed by Kathy Weissman

So much could have been done with this book. Though I should probably not review this book at all considering I lost interest completely by page 72, and only vaguely remember any bit after that.

I have been fascinated with Elizabeth Woodville for decades and unlike most, am mostly sympathetic to her. I have been so excited about this book, thinking a book written about her in first person would be something new and could open numerous posibilities. And although I much prefer non fiction, I still enjoy reading fiction and am able to overlook a moderate amount of historical inaccuracies for the sake of advancing the story. What really jarred me about this book was not the historical inaccuracies, thought they were blatant, it was the fact Elizabeth and those around her behaved,and thought, in a manner that was not consisten with the 15th century. And the dialog, well... where to start? The dialog is trite at best and leaves readers to believe that these were not very bright individuals. I remember writing a play for my sister and I when I was a pre teen. The dialog went no where, it was just a filler to get to the end. I felt that the dialog in this book was very similar. Just filler and what was not filler, was just ludicrous. The meeting between Elizabeth Woodville, her mother, and Cecily Neville was so ridiculous and unbelievable as to be vomit inducing. I dont know whether that conversation, or the constant reference to Melusina triggered my gag reflex the more.

I really wish this had been a better book so that I could actually look forward to the rest of the trilogy. Sadly, I doubt I will read any further into it.