The White Queen [Hardcover]

Lady Elizabeth Grey's husband was killed at the Battle of St. Albans and she desperately wants his lands back for her two little boys. She is tired of living in her parents' home and would like her independence. So she stands out in the road as the new king, Edward IV, rides by, holding their hands and hoping he'll see her. He does see her and takes note not only of her problems, but of her beauty, and before she knows it, Elizabeth is the queen of England and in almost over her head with politics and intrigue. She is a Woodville, though, and she will perservere, going to the edge to push her family as high as it can possibly go before her tower of cards topples around her.

This is going to be a good long review, as I have a lot to say on this book. For those who skim, here's my verdict: much better than I was expecting!

If you know me and have been reading my blog, you'll know that I've been working on a dissertation about Anthony Woodville (and fifteenth century chivalric culture in England overall) for what feels like forever. As such, this book was bound to touch on a topic near and dear to my heart, and it was bound to get some of the facts wrong, if only for the sake of storytelling. So it does; the Woodville family was loyal to Edward IV after 1461 but before he married Elizabeth, and Anthony was sent to besiege Alnwick Castle on his behalf with the earl of Warwick in 1463, not to mention that Elizabeth's father Lord Rivers had already been appointed to office. The beginning was anachronistic in another way because Edward kept being referred to as a boy, and there is no way anyone in the medieval period would have considered a man who had commanded and won two battles a boy. I can see that she did this more for characterization purposes, especially given he was younger than Elizabeth, so I don't mind as much, but still worth noting. And Anthony was not at Tewkesbury, although he was definitely in London and fighting when Thomas Neville arrived. There is also the whole magic subplot, but I thought that was actually quite creative, and historical inaccuracy only bothers me if people believe it's true. I don't think anyone would ever believe Elizabeth and Jacquetta were witches. I could go on, but I'll spare you.

All that said, Philippa Gregory got more right than wrong in this instance and I was pleasantly surprised. No one is needlessly victimized here; in fact Elizabeth is quite a sympathetic character which is refreshing after all of the villainizing that typically surrounds her. Even Richard III is not a villain but a multi-faceted man whose ambition just kept on pushing a little too far. The rest of the history is in many ways what has been fictionalized before, and I found nothing that really bothered me. All things considered I enjoyed this book after the first fifty pages and I wasn't expecting to. Gregory even included Anthony's poem, which is authentic and the only one that survives; she inflates his reputation to some extent, but I didn't mind, it fit in.

Gregory writes well, and in general the book is absorbing even for someone who has heard it all before. It's romanticized, but in the way that makes us sigh and wish we had a big blond knight to save the day. It's exciting and tense because everything is dangerous, and because I kept wondering who was going to kill the princes in this version. Another interesting twist there, and I think we're meant to guess at what she means, but for someone who doesn't know the history, it's a nice question. And in the end, I like the way Gregory twisted things here. It's interesting and it's different when the story has been done over and over again. Given the fluidity of history itself, I found myself enjoying the way she pushes boundaries and suggests things that probably didn't happen but might have done. I didn't want to read another fictional recap of the Wars of the Roses, but Gregory made it a little bit new, and despite myself I think I'm looking forward to The Red Queen very much, even if I don't think anyone ever called these `the cousin's wars'.

In other words, I do recommend The White Queen. It is historical fiction, after all, and if you're going to read another book that fictionalizes the Wars of the Roses, I highly suggest this one.

I loved Gregory's `The Other Boleyn Girl' and have always been pretty interested in the Tudor period in English history, but I have no great knowledge of the preceding Plantagenet age in which this book is set. I know a little of The Wars of the Roses and of the Missing Princes in the Tower, but that's it. Before reading this book on Elizabeth Woodville, I knew nothing of her at all. However, Gregory really brought these characters to life for me. she has chosen a fascinating female protagonist, and the era in which this is set is just as exciting and interesting as the Tudor era.

My lack of knowledge on this period in history made this book a very exciting read for me. I usually find lengthy battle scenes in historical novels pretty boring, but here I found them to be tense and exciting since I didn`t know the outcome of most of them. If there was one main difference between Gregory's Tudor books and this one, then it was the suspense factor for me. The Tudor books didn't hold much surprise for me as through study, books and even TV, I have a good background in Tudor chronology. Here, I feared for the characters at every turn. I didn't know what hand fate would deal them next, and I loved it.

While my lack of background knowledge on the time period added to my enjoyment of the book, it brought it's problems too. With so many battles, so many changed allegiances and so much plotting going on, it is sometimes easy to get confused. That's before I even mention the names. There are so many Edwards and Richards in this book, that things can get a little muddled. I did a little background reading and looked up a chronology of English Kings and Queens online, and this helped.

Elizabeth herself is an interesting character to read about. As powerful and resourceful as she is ambitious and ruthless, I liked her for the most part, although her relentless ambition was a little grating in the end. I loved the added supernatural element to Elizabeth's story, in which Gregory weaves the tale of Melusina, the water goddess alongside the story of Elizabeth for she and the female members of her family are descended from this otherworldly being. I loved the additions of magic and witchcraft to the story - it was something I hadn't expected, but it really worked for me. Gregory also has an interesting viewpoint on the missing princes in the tower. It is a mystery that has never been solved, and I very much enjoyed reading her take on it.

Overall I think this is a great read for fans of historical fiction. It is a wonderful prequel to her Tudor series, and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series, The Red Queen, due for release in August 2010.

I started to read Philippa Gregory's books some years ago (notably A Respectable Trade, Earthly Joys and Virgin Earth). These were novels which also informed the reader about events of their time. This book, and other recent ones, are just potboilers. In addition, the historical detail is confusedly written and the characters are simply uninteresting.
I could hardly be bothered to finish this one and shan't buy any more.