The Lady in the Tower

I finished The Lady in the Tower today, about, of course, Anne Boleyn. I suspect this book is to Plaidy what The Other Boleyn Girl is to Philippa Gregory: if you've read one Plaidy book, this is probably it. It's one of the later Plaidys, published in the United States in 1986, and not surprisingly, it was one of the first two Plaidy novels to be reissued by Three Rivers Press. Judging from the very rumpled state of my library copy, it's been quite a popular read.

This was actually a re-read of this novel for me. I read it several years ago, when I was just getting interested in historical fiction in a big way, and it's probably the first novel I'd read about Anne Boleyn. Having read a number of novels about Anne since, I was pleased to see how well it compared to more recent efforts.

Like many other novels about doomed queens, The Lady in the Tower is narrated in the first person by the heroine on the eve of her execution. (Question: are there novels about doomed kings told in the first person on the eve of the hero's execution? I can't remember a single one if so.) Anne looks back to her childhood at Hever, her intellectually stimulating time at the French court, her thwarted romance with Henry Percy, and her relationship with Henry VIII. She tries to understand the mistakes she's made, and though she judges Henry harshly, she's not inclined to let herself off easily either.

Those who have been accustomed to more sensational portraits of Anne won't find one here. Anne doesn't poison anyone, sleep with anyone besides Henry, engage in wild outdoors sex, or speak in modern American slang. Plaidy's prose, however, is rather flat compared to that of some of her more recent counterparts. There's some clunky dialogue, in particular that between Anne and her brother, and the chapters in which Henry schemes to divorce Catherine tend to drag, though a reader who is new to the history involved might not think so. The first person narrative imposes its own restrictions; by being limited to Anne's perspective, we miss out on other potentially fascinating ones, such as those of Anne's male courtiers.

Still, Plaidy tells an absorbing story, and her Anne is a sympathetic, yet flawed heroine. Those who are new to the story of Henry VIII and his six wives would be well advised to start their fictional journey here.

Sweatin' to the Plaidy, and a Question

It being a holiday today, I spent the afternoon at the gym. This time I had the foresight to bring a book along--Jean Plaidy's The Lady in the Tower. I read it several years ago, but I thought it'd be interesting to re-read it to see how its portrayal of Anne Boleyn stacked up to later novels about her.

Usually I stop after about 10 minutes on the treadmill, not because I get tired but because I get bored. This time, however, with Plaidy for company, I managed over 20 minutes, and a full mile! (For the record, I can read about 28 pages of Plaidy per mile.) The moral here is that Jean Plaidy is not only a diverting read, but good for your health.

Anyway, I'm working on an article about the reissue of Jean Plaidy's novels. In conjunction with that, I have some questions to pose to you Plaidy fans out there: What appeals to you about Plaidy's novels? Which ones would you like to see reissued? Do you have a preference for Plaidy's novels over other historical fiction, and if so, why? Inquiring minds (or my mind, anyway) want to know!

In My Absence . . .

Though I've been pitifully inattentive to this blog during the last few weeks, you'll be pleased to know that not everyone out there has been so slothful. Over at the Historical Fiction bulletin board, a thread has been started just for Plaidy's novels. So if you're a Plaidy fan, sign up for the bulletin board (it's fast and there's a great group of members there) and start chatting!

There's been some discussion on one of the groups I frequent about the popularity of female characters in historical fiction versus male ones. These days, females seems to be more in vogue. I'm wondering if that's one of the reasons for Plaidy's continuing popularity--so many of her novels focus on women, and many of them on figures who have been relatively neglected in historical fiction.

Thoughts?

The Italian Woman--A Link

Here's an in-depth review of Jean Plaidy's The Italian Woman, done on the Royalty Reviews blog. Another one to search out!

Plaidy Penmanship

Ever wondered what Jean Plaidy's signature looked like? Here's a site with an example.

Very nice and legible.

I'm going through a Plaidy-less period at the moment, but I should be rectifying the problem soon.

What's In a Title?

Looking at the back matter to The Queen's Secret, I've noticed that some of the upcoming Plaidy reissues are getting new titles:

Myself My Enemy, about Henrietta Maria, is going to be entitled Loyal in Love.

The Pleasures of Love, about Catherine of Braganza, is becoming The Merry Monarch's Wife.

William's Wife, about Mary, wife of William the Orange, is becoming The Queen's Devotion.

What do you think of these new titles? I think Myself My Enemy was somewhat better suited than the new title for the Henrietta Maria book, given the mood of the book, which is that of someone looking back on her mistakes and regretting some of her actions. Still, Henrietta Maria was certainly loyal. I did think that The Pleasures of Love was somewhat misleading for the Catherine of Braganza book, since poor Catherine is one of the few people in the novel who isn't enjoying the pleasures of love all that much. (And there is the difficulty of walking into a bookstore and demanding The Pleasures of Love; unless one hastens to mention Jean Plaidy, goodness knows what the clerk might pull up on the computer.)

William's Wife is definitely a dud of a title, but I'm not sure The Queen's Devotion is much of an improvement. It has a certain yawn-inducing quality to it. Given that one of Sarah Churchill's nicknames for William was "Caliban," I would have called it Caliban's Wife. But alas, no one ever asks me about these things.

The Queen's Secret

Here's a timely Plaidy review: The Queen's Secret, reissued recently. It's about Katherine of Valois, queen to Henry V and secret wife of Owen Tudor.

Katherine tells her story in the first person, beginning with her miserable, insecure childhood in France with her mentally ill father and her corrupt mother and ending with her forcible separation from the love of her life, Owen Tudor.

Plaidy's depiction of Katherine's childhood and its effects on her as a woman gives her a certain psychological depth, and though Katherine is ultimately helpless to prevent her fate, she preserves a certain dignity and strength about her that keeps her in the reader's sympathies. Plaidy also is good at conveying the mixed feelings that Katherine has as a French princess married to an English king, a situation that makes her position in both countries difficult.

I did find the structure here--it's one of those novels where the narrator looks back upon her life as she prepares for death--a bit limiting. Although we know from history what was to become of Owen Tudor and Katherine's children after her death, the novel leaves their stories unresolved, so there's still a sense of being left hanging when the novel ends.

From what I've read after reading this novel, little is known about how the relationship of Owen Tudor and Katherine came about. I thought that Plaidy's version of it was plausible and that Katherine's willingness to risk all for love showed an appealing, and believable, reckless streak in her character.

All in all, a worthy addition to your Plaidy shelf, either in this spanking new version or in one of the older ones.