Book Review
Jan. 12th, 2005 05:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariThe Queen of Subtleties
by Suzannah Dunn
This book was quite the disappointment; at least it was short. An alleged historical novel about Anne Boleyn, it took the "historical" out of historical fiction. I realize that most historical fiction probably doesn't portray the mindsets of the characters with complete accuaracy. I know that writers have many good reasons for using more modern language. Most of the historical novels I've read manage to avoid the most obvious blunders, though. This book, however, was rife with incredibly blatant anachronisms: Anne Boleyn at one point refers to her pre-Henry suitor as her "ex", and continually refers to Catherine of Aragon as Henry's "ex-wife". Later on, one character asks another why she is feeling "down in the dumps". Anne also speaks of putting on a "cream tea" for some of the courtiers. I don't really expect fiction set in the Tudor era to mimic Shakespeare's prose, but this was ridiculous.
by Suzannah Dunn
This book was quite the disappointment; at least it was short. An alleged historical novel about Anne Boleyn, it took the "historical" out of historical fiction. I realize that most historical fiction probably doesn't portray the mindsets of the characters with complete accuaracy. I know that writers have many good reasons for using more modern language. Most of the historical novels I've read manage to avoid the most obvious blunders, though. This book, however, was rife with incredibly blatant anachronisms: Anne Boleyn at one point refers to her pre-Henry suitor as her "ex", and continually refers to Catherine of Aragon as Henry's "ex-wife". Later on, one character asks another why she is feeling "down in the dumps". Anne also speaks of putting on a "cream tea" for some of the courtiers. I don't really expect fiction set in the Tudor era to mimic Shakespeare's prose, but this was ridiculous.
