Book Review
Mar. 10th, 2009 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariBrief Gaudy Hour
by Margaret Campbell Barnes
This classic historical novel is about Anne Boleyn. Despite the fact that she is a popular subject for writers of historical fiction, I think this may be the first novel I have read in which she is the protagonist, surprisingly enough. Barnes is an extremely good writer, and convincingly conveys the feel and details of the era. I swear I could just about feel the velvets and brocades of the clothing and smell the candle wax and polished wood of Westminster and Hampton Court.
Brief Gaudy Hour focuses intensely on Anne's youth and rise to power, treating her downfall more as a denouement. Barnes has an interesting view of Anne Boleyn, taking a kind of middle way between romantic martyr and ambitious schemer. In this book, Anne's personal motivation for her rise to power is to gain a combination of revenge and recompense for the loss of her true love, Henry Percy, from whom she was parted by the ambitions of her family and the consequences of the king's desire for her. However, Anne does find Henry VIII genuinely attractive and interesting, making her feelings towards him and the course of their relationship complicated. I have no idea whether there is any truth to this version, but I thought it was a fascinating view of Anne Boleyn.
by Margaret Campbell Barnes
This classic historical novel is about Anne Boleyn. Despite the fact that she is a popular subject for writers of historical fiction, I think this may be the first novel I have read in which she is the protagonist, surprisingly enough. Barnes is an extremely good writer, and convincingly conveys the feel and details of the era. I swear I could just about feel the velvets and brocades of the clothing and smell the candle wax and polished wood of Westminster and Hampton Court.
Brief Gaudy Hour focuses intensely on Anne's youth and rise to power, treating her downfall more as a denouement. Barnes has an interesting view of Anne Boleyn, taking a kind of middle way between romantic martyr and ambitious schemer. In this book, Anne's personal motivation for her rise to power is to gain a combination of revenge and recompense for the loss of her true love, Henry Percy, from whom she was parted by the ambitions of her family and the consequences of the king's desire for her. However, Anne does find Henry VIII genuinely attractive and interesting, making her feelings towards him and the course of their relationship complicated. I have no idea whether there is any truth to this version, but I thought it was a fascinating view of Anne Boleyn.
