A great biography on the six wives of Henry VIII
Written: May 24 '08
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: was a very good read and was packed with information
Cons: wasn't divided into sections very well
The Bottom Line: This was a great book packed with information
|
|
|
| talbert334's Full Review: David Starkey - Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VII... |
Overall, this was a really good boo. It was packed with information on Henry VIII and his six wives. I've read both Alison Weir's and Antonia Fraser's biography on them, and I liked both of those a lot. However, out of the three books, I think that this one was the best.
This book was very long: it was 766 pages. Weir's book was 573 pages and Fraser's was 431 pages. Henceforth, there was a lot of information in it. He also divides it into separate sections on the queens, so you read only about that one queen and it isn't biased. Fraser also divides her book into sections on the different queens, but the first two chapters in her 'Jane Seymour' section are more on Anne Boleyn then Jane Seymour. In Starkey's book, Anne Boleyn is only mentioned about three times in Catherine of Aragon's section. She isn't even call Anne Boleyn in it: she is only referred to as 'Henry's mistress.'
Starkey doesn't do a very good jobs though on dividing sections on each queen. I understand that he was married to Catherine of Aragon for over twenty years and that his marriage to Anne Boleyn was very important, but I wish that he would have written more on the other wives. This is the amount of pages that each wife gets: Catherine of Aragon-248; Anne Boleyn-321; Jane Seymour-27; Anne of Cleves-27; Catherine Howard-41; Catherine Parr-76. (There are also chapters on Henry's life between marraiges.) I wish that he would have written more on Catherine Howard. Fortunately though, the information that he does give on her is very good. He is sympathetic towards her I learned a lot about her in the 41 pages that she does receive.
Unfortunately, he bashed Weir's and Fraser's biographies. Although I think his is better then theirs, I dislike what he writes about them. This book was a very good read. I've read one other book by him: "Elizabeth: The Struggle for the Throne." I think that this book was better read. That book was good, but I felt like putting it down at times. This book was a lot better. "Six Wives-The Queens of Henry VIII" is very good and I would definitely recommend it.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
talbert334
|
|
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.