Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII - Hardcover

Starkey, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 069401043X ISBN 13: 9780694010431

Publisher: HarperCollins, 2003

Synopsis

Profiles the six marriages of King Henry VIII against the political drama of the Tudor era, tracing his relatively stable twenty-four-year first marriage to Catherine of Aragon and subsequent whirlwind decade of new brides, including two who were executed. 100,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

David Starkey's massive Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII follows on the huge commercial success of Elizabeth. Like its predecessor, Starkey's latest book mixes its author's scholarly erudition with a mischievous eye for a contemporary comparison or salacious soundbite. Starkey's topic is, as he admits from the outset, "one of the world's great stories"--the lives, and deaths, of the six wives of King Henry VIII. The story has been told before, but as Starkey points out, it has been wrapped in the romantic myth of 19th-century historiography.

Starkey's virtue lies in his return to the archives to unearth new evidence for his story of Henry's wives. The result is a weighty blockbuster that will annoy the purists but delight the popular reader. Henry is portrayed as a fairytale prince gradually transformed into a "prematurely aged and bloated monster". Starkey concludes that "like us, he expected marriage to make him happy", but this simple desire had increasingly disastrous consequences.

Henry worked his way through a series of wives from Catherine of Aragon to Catherine Parr who, according to Starkey, encompass "the full range of female stereotypes: the Saint, the Schemer, the Doormat, the Dim Fat Girl, the Sexy Teenager, and the Bluestocking". While this tends to flatten out the complexity of many of Henry's wives, there is plenty on the cataclysmic impact of the Reformation, new evidence on Henry's first wife's marriage to his brother, and a reconsideration of Henry's final wife, Catherine Parr, as "the first Queen of the Age of Print", to keep even the most sceptical reader happy. --Jerry Brotton

Review:

"Truly, this is history made as fluent and compelling as excellent fiction."--Booklist (starred review)

"Extraordinary. . . . With each queen, Starkey offers a vivid character study."--Sunday Times (London)

"Brilliant. ... Six Wives provides an intriguing new perspective on this key period in English history."--Daily Telegraph (London)

"Acute and imaginative. ... [Starkey's] communication of subtle points in simple and vivid language is masterly."--Sunday Telegraph

"Exciting. ... Very acute. ... It is so gripping that one finishes it wishing it were even longer."--Mail on Sunday

Exciting. ... Very acute. ... It is so gripping that one finishes it wishing it were even longer. --Mail on Sunday"

Extraordinary. . . . With each queen, Starkey offers a vivid character study. --Sunday Times (London)"

Acute and imaginative. ... [Starkey s] communication of subtle points in simple and vivid language is masterly. --Sunday Telegraph"

Brilliant. ... Six Wives provides an intriguing new perspective on this key period in English history. --Daily Telegraph (London)"

Truly, this is history made as fluent and compelling as excellent fiction. --Booklist (starred review)"

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 069401043X
• ISBN 13: 9780694010431
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 880