At last! Finally finished the 646 page epic 'Murder Most Royal' by Jean Plaidy! OK, that makes it sound like a chore, but the only real chore was holding up long enough to read it and having to carry it round with me (see earlier post!). Glad to say no further injuries have been incurred, but I'm being careful not to drop it on my foot or anything now that I've finished it.
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'Murder Most Royal' by
Jean Plaidy (Published by
Arrow Books, 2006) |
As always, Plaidy created a great sense of time and place in this retelling of the story of Henry VIII's second and fifth wives, Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, cousins who were both sent to the block for infidelity, a treasonable offence in a queen. The story also includes Jane Seymour (wife number three) and Anne of Cleves (wife number four), though they were hardly touched on. This was very much Anne Boleyn's show and, even if Henry didn't love her as much as the book suggests, you get the feeling that Plaidy certainly did! The majority of the book is focussed so much on Anne, it feels like Plaidy completely forgot about his other wives and suddenly realised she needed to talk about them too about two thirds of the way through. By comparison, their stories feel incredibly rushed and I almost wished she'd written three books rather than one. From what I understand from other books and documentaries, these wives were actually quite interesting in their own right and I almost feel sad that they've been overlooked once again in favour of the more glamorous queens.
The thing I normally like about Plaidy's books is that she often talks about the bigger picture, including politics and the stories of people I know less about. A good example is hearing about Katherine of Aragon's family in 'Katherine the Virgin Widow' (great book). Unfortunately, the focus on Anne Boleyn got in the way of this a bit here, so it didn't feel so much of a rounded picture of the time.
I know it's a real nit pick, but sometimes Plaidy's tendency to use old language winds me up a bit too. It can feel like she's learnt something new and is determined to use it at every opportunity! Yes, it's probably intended to add to the sense of time and place, but I don't want it to feel like I'm translating every time I read a piece of dialogue. I had enough of that with the Yorkshire brogue used by Emily Bronte in 'Wuthering Heights'!
Anyway, on the whole I enjoyed this book, certainly enough to want to see it through to the end, even though I knew what happened. Not one of Plaidy's best and certainly not the one I'd recommend people to start with, but she wrote so many books, it's hard to get too upset about one that's not quite as good as some of the others. It's not like I'm going to send her to the Tower over it or anything!
