How this book made the Best of list in 1984 is beyond my comprehension. The writing is terrible, the information jumps from one person to another (many intertwining stories), part of this reads as non-fiction the rest as bad fiction (and you really never know which is which), and there is too much information that I believe was unnecessary.

Chapter Four: Page 45: "Never mind that, after several years, there was no conclusion in sight, or that her young charms were withering with every passing month." Give me a break! It was 1522 and the Boleyn was approximately 15-17 years of age.

The end of Chapter Six & beginning of Seven reads like an over emotional romance novel..... QUOTE:

Six: Page 75: "She was his elixir of hope. The jumbled fragments of of his disordered life fell into place once again around her.

Six: Page 75: "The new enchantments of love drove out the old sorceries that enchained Henry, putting him forever in his beloved's debt, and putting her Forever (?), in the lists of his loves and mistresses, in a class by herself."

Seven: Page 78: "The King was giddy with love. He thirsted for the sight of his beloved Anne, he longed for her as he had never longed for any woman....."

I'll tell you for someone who was touted as: "......one of America's foremost young historians, she has also been called 'a queen of storytellers'......" when writing non-fiction biographies she needed to put her fanciful imagination aside.

The first book I ever read by her was: "Last Wife of Henry VIII", which I gave three stars. Obviously her writing has improved....
( )

The extraordinary life of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII, has long captured imaginations. Is she a seductress who steals the King's heart away from Queen Katherine or is she unwittingly tangled in the intrigues and passions of the 16th century English court?

Carolly Erikson does a fine job of pulling together what historical evidence about Anne exists and paints a historically accurate picture of life in King Henry VIII's court. However she seems too often to use such statements as "It cannot be known for sure what Anne was feeling during the month of her confinement," or "While no writings exist today, we can guess that the King was frustrated with Anne's haughty behavior..." little actual evidence survives, so Erikson relies heavily upon legend and hearsay.

Overall, I'd recommend this book for a great in-depth introduction to what we know about the ill-fated Queen, who waited for almost a decade to marry the King, only to be wrongly convicted of adultery and treason, and beheaded at the Tower of London two years into the royal marriage. ( )

I consider this to be, at most, a supplementary volume; definitely not a first or only biography. Although it has a few interesting nuggets, it ignore a great deal of the research and information available on Anne Boleyn. She makes some points that I don't recall seeing elsewhere in analyzing Anne's sexual history for example, but having read other biographies, I know that there are counter-arguments that she has not addressed. I find her arguments seriously weakened. The documentation leaves a great deal to be desired. Sometimes she goes on for pages, and even quotes material, without giving any source. I am rather surprised, for example, to see her declare that Thomas Boleyn, Anne's father, urged Henry not to marry her. There is nothing backing up this claim.

In short, read Eric Ives, read Marie Louise Bruce, read Antonia Fraser or David Starkey on all six of Henry's queens before picking up this. ( )