Mistress Anne

Rating:
Summary: Inevitable limitations
Review: Erickson's avowed practice of giving equal weight to each part of a subject's life, rather than concentrating on the period when the subject was "famous," causes two major problems this time. First, there is (or was at the time of Erickson's work) little or no documentation of Anne Boleyn's early life; thus, for much of the book we are repeatedly confronted with statements of how Anne "must have" felt, reacted, behaved, etc. Second, the short period in which Anne strutted upon the world stage skims by far too quickly, with too little detail. True, Anne "must have" felt that way about events herself -- but surely the benefit of time and perspective is that we can linger and delve into the subject. Perhaps it is impossible to write a really adequate biography of Anne Boleyn.

Rating:
Summary: Get Something Better
Review: I expected a bit more by an author who's done several such books in the Tudor period. Sadly, the book reads like it is simply a high school student's history notes (not even the 'final paper'). The style is jagged and choppy, with so many 'we really don't know much about this woman' comments that I almost gave up on finishing it. I understand not wanting to embellish history and keeping a book historically accurate, but there are ways of doing it without driving one's reader batty. If I could have given it 0 stars, I would have.

Rating:
Summary: decent
Review: I was doing a report on the life of Anne Boleyn, and this was the only book in my school library that was dedicated solely to Anne... I read it and I was unsatisfied :| It was really vague, and the book only brushed the surface of the iceberg. I had to refer to various sources to find more information... this gave too little. I would recommend Antonia Fraser's Six Wives of Henry the VIII instead...

Rating:
Summary: Inevitable limitations
Review: In a manner which I have found unfortunately typical of Carolly Erickson's writing, "Mistress Anne" contains many details about court life (including "trivia" not typical of books on the subject), yet not enough about Anne herself. The rather rambling references to, for example, Anne's days at the French court became tedious. My impression was of a collection of material which could be interesting in a "classroom lecture" setting, where it is assumed that the hearers are studying the entire era and would enjoy tidbits not found in their textbooks, but which makes boring reading on its own.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat disappointing
Review: While this book was a good source of information on Anne Boleyn's world, the facts given about Anne herself were sketchy at best. In spite of fascinating details such as descriptions of the French court where Anne grew up and the accounts of the court procedures of Henry VIII's divorce from Katharine of Aragon, one never really gets the feel of Anne as a real person. The lack of information about Anne's day-to-day life is one reason for this, but the fact remains that this is simply not one of Erickson's best biographies.

Enjoy this book, but read Antonia Fraser's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" for a truer portrait of Anne Boleyn.