I have a bit of an obsession with British history, specifically anywhere from the War of the Roses up through the Victorian era. I may have spent a good hour at work one night painstakingly tracing the passage of the crown through British royals from 1327 to the modern day.
I bet you thought I was kidding. I don't joke about history.
(I do joke about history.)
I notice now that I should have changed the display of the Tudor children so they don't all appear to be descended from each other. I'm only human.
I never really get tired of the stories, even when I know them intimately. As such I read a lot of authors who cover the same eras: Alison Weir, Carolly Erickson, Robin Maxwell, and the quintessential royalty-writer herself, Philippa Gregory. With, at my best count, 15 novels specifically featuring British royals, she was the first historical fiction writer that I really got into. (Though, interestingly, my favorite series of hers is actually Georgian and doesn't feature royalty at all--Wideacre) It's pretty much required that I need to pick up each of her new books as she works her way through the Cousin's War.
This is another of my recent reads that has a television adaptation to go along with it. BBC and Starz released the miniseries The White Queen in 2013, based on Gregory's previous books. Now Starz is developing a second miniseries as a sequel, based on this book. I haven't yet seen the first one, but given that I now have both Outlander and these adaptations to be watching, I might have to get Starz on my cable service.
Freya Mavor played Elizabeth of York in the first miniseries, so I wonder if we'll see her return for the titular role of the White Princess. The story covers so much of Elizabeth's life that it may be very difficult to use such a young actor (Mavor is 21).
Summary:
In this, the fifth book of the Cousin's War series, we feature Elizabeth of York. The daughter of the old king Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville, featured in the previous book The White Queen, Elizabeth of York spent some time as the paramour of her uncle, Richard III, featured in the previous book The Kingmaker's Daughter. Richard III has been overthrown by Henry Tudor, soon to be known as Henry VII, and Elizabeth is to marry him. The White Princess tells the story of their marriage, at turns cold and loving and full of fear and cold again, and that of the mysterious Boy who may or may not be Elizabeth's brother Richard, one of the two boys who disappeared from the Tower.
Elizabeth of York and Henry VII.
As a reader:
This story is about a mystery at its heart, and we never really get a payoff. Is the Boy Elizabeth's long-lost brother? Or is he really Perkin Warbeck, one of the many names put upon him? Gregory seems to be implying that he is the true Richard of York, but it is never explicitly stated. In this way it seems that Gregory has started the book at a certain tension level, and then just left us there, without amping up or resolving any of it. It's very unsatisfying in this way and I have to wonder if at 60 Gregory is just getting tired of this work. I feel as if I could summarize this entire story as follows:
Henry: "What do you know?"
Elizabeth: "Nothing."
Henry: "But what do you know?? You're a York!"
Elizabeth: "Nothing."
BORING. If the characters never know anything, then the reader looking through their point of view never knows anything either, and then what, exactly, is the point of the story? This story is missing the mysticism and the strong women of Melusina in previous books. It just feels fairly flat.
About the only thing that really grabbed me in this book was the relationship between Elizabeth and Henry. Elizabeth herself is a fairly empty character, but I think that reflects more on what she had to be in context than on Gregory's writing. She was beset with suspicions from her husband's family, and essentially had to withdraw from the world to stay clear of any ill associations. Henry, on the other hand, is a vibrant character, full of fear and uncertainty. Their marriage begins on such terrible ground--Henry insists he must see if Elizabeth can get pregnant before he commits himself to her, and so, premarital rape--but somehow, over time, they come to feel a kind of fondness for each other. For a time, they are happy. But the state of their relationship mirrors the state of the kingdom, and when Henry is on rocky ground, so too are they.
As a writer:
If Gregory's tired of writing, her editor must be tired of proofreading. I'm the type of reader who stumbles over errors like a loose brick: I'm clumsy and I can't help it. I found so many minor errors in this book that, individually are nothing, but they interrupt my flow and it looks unprofessional.
"None of her ladies is[sic] here, her musicians are absent..."
"As the wife of the king, I can kneel to him publicly and ask for clemency for a criminal. Maggie will come forwards[sic] and take off my hood..."
"None of the people of the west is[sic] for Tudor, they are all looking for the prince over the water."
Touching back on the tension, this book really emphasizes for me the importance of the plot structure. I realize that it can be more difficult to use this structure when working with an existing story in history, because you are in some ways limited to what actually happened. However, this is still, at its core, fiction. We don't know enough about these historical figures to say exactly how they would have acted or behaved, and so enough leeway is there to, I think, stay with the basic structure of plot.
The plot structure of this book would be less like a mountain and more like a sound wave. No climax, no resolution, just a series of little ups and down.
It's not all bad, though. It's still Philippa Gregory, and girl knows how to do words.
"Everywhere Henry goes, people fall silent so that no whisper reaches his ears; but before and behind him there is a patter of sound like a warning drizzle before a storm of rain."
Overall: 3 stars.
Amazon: The White Princess
More reviews: The White Princess on Librarything (Average 3.62 stars)
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