![]() ![]() ![]() During those last 250 pages I mentioned, for example, there is so much detail about her continual financial troubles (Poor Anna – it’s just SO expensive to keep multiple castles going at once), about her interpersonal relationships with LOTS of minor characters, and about the on-again, off-again court suspicions and gossip surrounding her– that it all seemed to me “much ado about nothing.” I kept waiting to learn the point of all the detail. Henry commissions her portrait from his court. Weir makes good use of her considerable knowledge as a historian to enrich the narrative with lots of facts and detail– perhaps TOO much so for my taste. Anna of Kleve, from a small German duchy, is twenty-four, and has a secret she is desperate to keep hidden. And the novel ends with her death in 1557. The book begins when Anna is a child, a Catholic (though her marriage to Henry VIII is often incorrectly seen as a Protestant alliance), brought up by strict parents in a formal court atmosphere. ![]() (After all, her marriage to Henry only lasted six months.) And FYI, the annulment of that marriage happens about half way through this 500 page book yet there’s still 250 pages to wade through. : Anna of Kleve, The Princess in the Portrait: A Novel (Six Tudor Queens) (9781101966570) by Weir, Alison and a great selection of similar New, Used and Collectible Books available now at great prices. I think the story of Anna of Kleve (aka Anne of Cleves) just inherently contains less drama. I’m not sure it’s entirely Weir’s fault, though. ![]()
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