10
Historical FictionDoes Philippa Gregory just hate women?
Does anyone else like historical fiction? I am a total nerd for it. I have been listening & reading basically every book by both Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory, and... I have thoughts.
I really prefer Alison Weir's books to Philippa's. I have been reading The King's Curse (focuses on Margaret Pole's life) and to be honest it is one of the better pieces of her work that I have read. They always seem like such a slog to get through because she always writes her characters as such idiotic and insipid lunatics. Margaret is by far one of the more likable written main characters of hers that I have read. (Aside from Hannah Green in The Queen's Fool which I did adore.)
As I have been poking around looking at other opinions of her work - I have heard it said that she likes to consider herself a amateur historian and that many people think that she claims the events in her books actually happened, and by the broad strokes, they did. However, she does take a TON of license to move her plots along that deviate from the actual historical record. Which is fine in historical fiction as long as the books turn out good.
For example: in Alison Weir's book The Lady Elizabeth, Weir's story assumes the position that Elizabeth became pregnant due to her grooming and rape by Thomas Seymor; however, in the author's note Weir clearly states: "We don't know what actually happened, and one thing I get to ask as an author is: 'What if it did?' " which I appreciated as a end-note to the story. Phillipa does nothing of the sort in any of her books I have come across, which I find a bit... unsettling?
Then there is the way that she treats her female characters. In The Red Queen, Margaret Beaufort is a totally unlikable main character. (to be fair, she isn't my favorite Tudor person on a good day, but god damn lady.) and Elizabeth of York is little more than a young girl with a love of a dead man's dick for half of her novel. Henry VIII is always portrayed as at least somewhat sympathetically, and she turned Catharine of Aragon into a lying whipped puppy. Gregory has nothing but hatred and contempt for Anne Boleyn, which, fair - most people either love her or hate her. But Gregory's intense dislike for Elizabeth I is just... Gregory, girl, how did 'Liz hurt you?
I don't know. I'm just thinking through my fingers here. But has anyone else noticed this?
I adore historical fiction, and I don't care for Gregory at all.
I used to eat up Jean Plaidy, but I knew it was pulp fiction.
OMG I LOVE Jean Plaidy! I think I read every one of her books in a single summer. 😭 They were just delicious!
I've never read Philippa Gregory, so I can't really answer your question. But Elizabeth Chadwick writes similar novels. I read her trilogy on Eleanor of Aquitaine and I thought she was very sympathetic to the character.
I haven't read Alison Weir, but I wanted to read Normal women by Philippa Gregory. I thought I would learn a lot about women, but when I was reading the first chapter, it just felt like she just threw in some lists of women's names. Like here'a a list of women that did a cool thing in the past one, here's a list two, etc. So I then went on to read reviews to find out if the rest of the book is the same. Seems that while she does go deeper sometimes, she does lack narrative in most of other places, not just according to me, but to other reviewers as well. So I didn't finish Normal Women.
If someone is accused of something, or there is a rumor about them, Gregory assumes it is true, because it is more entertaining. So Elizabeth of York has the hots for her uncle, and Ann Boleyn is a brother banging witch.
Alison Weir is a serious scholar and Philippa Gregory is a romance novel writer, it really is not a good comparison.
Hard agree. Gregory’s prose leaves a lot to be desired. Gregory clunks along hoping that historical titillation will carry her. Alison Weir is very good.
OP - If you want to delve into historical fiction, can I recommend Anya Seton. She’s an oldie but a goodie. Her historical research and presentation is impeccable, her prose is good and her books are very enjoyable. Daphne du Maurier’s historical fiction is wonderful too and she shares the virtues of Seton with the added bonus that she is now being considered one of the great popular novelists of the twentieth century and an influential prose stylist. If you don’t mind a bit of drug induced time travel to get you to the past, du Maurier’s The House on the Strand is a lot of fun.
There’s a lot of great historical fiction around. Don’t be afraid to delve into the past thinking that the prose will be unreadable, or the understanding of human nature and event’s unsophisticated or the entire book just bad or boring. Both of the writers I mentioned were well before my time. There’s a lot better than Gregory out there.
I actually love Gregory. She's totally a trashy writer, but I love it the way I love Kraft singles.
Oh, I have my guilty pleasures too. I didn’t mean to diss low culture entirely, it’s just Gregory doesn’t work for me.
That is a fair take. Gregory just leaves me with such an ick feeling because she is just so ready to assume the worst possible rumors are true even without any actual evidence to back them up.
Because she is writing sensationalist stories.