She disdains the dalliances of court life.

Weir's fictional Anne is ferociously smart and guilty of nothing but craving the power that's rightfully hers to claim. Anne's epiphany? Women 'are not born just to be subordinate to men.' She learns to lean forward.Īuthor Interviews 'Great And Infamous' Mary: The Other 'Boleyn' Girl In the household of Madame Marguerite, the king of France's sister, Boleyn discovers brilliant, progressive minds - not only Erasmus, the leading intellectual of the day, but also the work of pioneering feminist Christine de Pizan. But this quite ordinary, not very pretty girl from a rich household is educated at the courts of a series of outstanding women. Weir reconstructs Anne's youth as a child in the wealthy household of Sir Thomas Boleyn, who was dubbed 'Esquire of the Body of the Monarch,' and her mother, the great beauty Elizabeth Howard. But the couple had a famously bumpy six-year courtship before that, an extended, aphrodisiacal game of hide-and-seek.

Anne Boleyn ruled England alongside her husband Henry VIII for only three years, from 1533 to 1536. We all know how the story ends, so it's a neat trick to draw drama out of such a familiar material. Her new historical novel, Anne Boleyn: A King's Obsession, represents a persuasive attempt to restore the humanity of a tragic, misrepresented figure, one of history's original nasty women. What's a determined author to do? Alison Weir's answer is to forge new approaches to time-worn situations by focusing on the women of the period. The cottage industry has outgrown its cottage and is on its way to filling up a castle. Is our hunger for the intrigues of the English Tudors never to be sated? A cursory search for books on Henry VIII yields over 9,000 titles. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Anne Boleyn Subtitle A King's Obsession Author Alison Weir

Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir