READ THIS: The White Queen by Philippa Gregory
This is the 96th book we have reviewed so far at Whom You Know, and the only thing we did not like about "The White Queen" is that it ended at all! We absolutely loved it, and this is our first Philippa Gregory book. We are only sorry it took us this long to discover her great talent. As a history major, Peachy Deegan can appreciate the research that it must have taken Gregory to unearth as many facts and pieces as she could to weave such a fantastic tale together, giving us the most accurate view on Elizabeth Woodville that we are aware of. The bibliography in the back of the book is impressive! Peachy does go on and on about her Irish background in general, but did you know she is also English? Her English ancestors arrived in Massachusetts from Southampton, England in the seventeenth century so maybe they could have been in this book...
"The White Queen" was a pageturner from the start. Even if you are not a history enthusiast, you will be intrigued by the plot as some issues presented are truly timeless. We will absolutely not give any of them away because we want you to read the book: we highly recommend it. The color of the characters makes the pages not seem as black and white as they are, and fifteenth century England never appeared to us as interesting as Gregory presents it. One of Peachy Deegan's favorite places in London is the National Portrait Gallery and on our next visit we will certainly be looking for the characters we learned more about here. If you have not been to the National Portrait Gallery, if you begin at the very top of it and go down floor by floor all the leaders of England ever are memorialized as portraits on the wall. The organization is amazing but the individuals even more so, and they certainly stand out more to the credit of works such as "The White Queen."
Also, we will be thinking of Elizabeth on our next visit to the Tower of London! Gregory gives the Tower a much more human quality than it had before to us. Once we just thought about how outstanding the crown jewels are...it is not enough to be just beautiful. Like Elizabeth herself, one must be cunning, a step ahead of the game, and sincere in character. The references to Melusina throughout the book add a dimension of the fantasy world that is intrinsic to the UK and Ireland, which we like a lot. (Take a look at our Take a Trip to London and Take a Trip to Ireland columns.)
Although "The White Queen" is about 400 pages, it does not seem it at all. We wonder if this will also be turned into a movie like another of Gregory's books: "The Other Boleyn Girl"; it certainly deserves to be seen on the big screen. We are counting down the days until The Red Queen! Bravo Philippa Gregory!
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#1 New York Times bestselling novelist Philippa Gregory became a renowned chronicler of British history with her Tudor period novels. Now, she presents the first novel in her new The Cousins War series on the Plantagenet period. Ushering in a great new era for Philippa Gregory, The White Queen (A Touchstone Hardcover; August 18, 2009; 1-4165-6368-7; $26.99) is set amidst the tumult and intrigue of England’s passionate family feud.
The White Queen begins with Elizabeth Woodville waiting on the road to Northampton for the King of England at the head of his army. The York and Lancaster families are fighting for the English throne in a war then called the Cousins War and now known as the War of the Roses. It is a family feud, a battle pitting brothers and cousins against each other for the right to claim the crown of England.
The king falls in love with the beautiful widow and they are married in secret within weeks. When the marriage is discovered, Elizabeth and her family are flung into the center of the struggle for power in the royal court where they have to confront their traditional enemies and new rivals for the power and wealth of England.
Gregory masterfully chronicles this family drama through the lives of its women and in The White Queen through the viewpoint of Elizabeth Woodville - the first commoner ever to be married for love, to an English King raised in a kingdom at war, driven by her own desire and ambition, and advised by an acknowledged witch: her mother Jacquetta. Gregory artfully weaves in the supernatural and magical elements of Elizabeth’s story as she rises to the demands of her position and fights for the success and even survival of her family.
Twice, Elizabeth has to retreat to sanctuary – the safety of the church – and she has to release her sons to a royal rival king, the notorious Richard III. These are the boys we know now as the princes in the Tower – a mystery that has puzzled scholars for centuries, for which Gregory suggests a powerful new explanation for the boys’ disappearance.
Combining years of impeccable research and her renowned storytelling skills, Gregory once again brings a thrilling, beautiful novel to eager fans worldwide.
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