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Six Wives : " The Queens Of Henry VIII " : [Hardcover]

Dr David Starkey (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 880 pages
  • Publisher: Chatto & Windus; 1st. Edition edition (27 Mar 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0701172983
  • ISBN-13: 978-0701172985
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.6 x 5.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 212,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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David Starkey
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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk 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

Book Description

Starkey is a master of storytelling and Six Wives is a fully researched, important contribution to the history of the period. Contains masses of new ideas unique to Starkey's Tudor studies and draws on primary material.
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First Sentence
Royal weddings in the early sixteenth century, like royal weddings now, were an opportunity for lavish public ceremony. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Finally, a definitive book on those most famous and misunderstood women who comprise the myth of Henry VIII. Starkey has written a seminal volume that blows the lid off the "set-in-stone" images of the six women, most especially Katharine of Aragon, to whom the majority of the first half of the book is appropriately focused on-- after all, he was married (or not) to her for longer thajn all the others put together. Katharine's image as the pious, marble Madonna is smashed with Starkey's historical record, showing her to be quite well-informed, machinating and matching Henry's moves, often before Henry himself was ready to make a move. As a counter, little space is devoted to the "relatively unimportant wives," although I regret that more information does not exist about the secluded life of Anne of Cleeves-- but history does not provide for such desires. Starkey's book rivals, and indeed betters, all other books available that focus not only on the personalities of the women themselves, but Henry's manipulations, cuckolding, pressures and obsessions in dealing with them. Anne Boleyn emerges, not surprisingly, as a frenetic, shrewish, frightened woman, but the Catherine Howard legend takes a completely different, and often quite empathetic view, at least in modern terms-- perhaps Starkey's views are with a 21st century approach, but regardless, they bring these women to life in a a way never before available--or so deeply enjoyed--as this book does. This is not only a magnificent starting point for anyone interested in the topic, but a fantastic oppoortunity to examine our own taught or inherent beliefs about these six women. Needless to say, this is highly recommended.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is fantastic and gives appropriate weighting to each of Henry VIII's wives. As a result the bulk of the book is devoted to his first Queen, Catherine of Aragon. As with his book on Elizabeth I, Dr Starkey makes a gripping read out of real history and avoids making it seem like a boring history lesson. A trap too many historical authors fall into.
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12 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Fantastic 2 Jun 2003
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
I cannot praise this book enough... absolutely brilliant. For those of you out there who have an interest in history in general, nevermind the reign of Henry VIII, this will prove a fascinating and thought provoking read. For those of you just looking for a good book that you can get your teeth into, look no further - this has it all.
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