Anne Boleyn, a King's Obsession (Six Tudor Queens Series #2)

by Alison Weir

Overview

In this second novel of Alison Weir’s epic Six Tudor Queens series, the acclaimed author and historian weaves exciting new research into the story of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s most infamous wife, a woman ahead of her time whose very life—and death—forever changed a nation.

Born into a noble English family, Anne is barely a teenager when she is sent from her family’s Hever Castle to serve at the royal court of the Netherlands. This strategic move on the part of her opportunistic father also becomes a chance for the girl to grow and discover herself. There, and later in France, Anne thrives, preferring to absorb the works of progressive writers rather than participate in courtly flirtations. She also begins to understand the inequalities and indignities suffered by her gender.

Anne isn’t completely inured to the longings of the heart, but her powerful family has ambitious plans for her future that override any wishes of her own. When the King of England himself, Henry VIII, asks Anne to be his mistress, she spurns his advances—reminding him that he is a married man who has already conducted an affair with her sister, Mary. Anne’s rejection only intensifies Henry’s pursuit, but in the absence of a male heir—and given an aging Queen Katherine—the opportunity to elevate and protect the Boleyn family, and to exact vengeance on her envious detractors, is too tempting for Anne to resist, even as it proves to be her undoing.

While history tells of how Anne Boleyn died, this compelling new novel reveals how fully she lived.

Praise for Anne Boleyn, A King’s Obession

“Superb . . . page-turning biographical fiction, hauntingly and beautifully told . . . psychologically penetrating.”—Historical Novels Review

“Immaculately researched and convincing . . . This tale of Anne’s ascent and demise cannot escape comparisons with Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series.”—The Times

“A tragic, misrepresented figure, one of history’s original nasty women . . . Weir’s fictional Anne is ferociously smart and guilty of nothing but craving the power that's rightfully hers to claim.”—NPR

“One of historical fiction’s most compelling and exciting portraits of the enduringly fascinating and mysterious Anne Boleyn.”—Lancashire Evening Post

“As always, Weir demonstrates a keen eye for crafting dramatic scenes of beautiful, accurate detail, instilling in the reader a vivid sense of being there.”—Booklist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781101966532
Publisher:	Random House Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/24/2018
Series:	Six Tudor Queens Series , #2
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	59,726
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Alison Weir is the New York Times bestselling author of the novels Katherine of Aragon: The True Queen; The Marriage Game; A Dangerous Inheritance; Captive Queen; The Lady Elizabeth; and Innocent Traitor and numerous historical biographies, including The Lost Tudor Princess, Elizabeth of York, Mary Boleyn, The Lady in the Tower, Mistress of the Monarchy, Henry VIII, Eleanor of Aquitaine, The Life of Elizabeth I, and The Six Wives of Henry VIII. She lives in Surrey, England, with her husband.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Anne Boleyn, A King's Obsession"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Alison Weir.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Reading Group Guide

1. From the opening scene of A King’s Obsession, Anne Boleyn is impatient for change—-for something new and exciting to happen. She is a capricious child, highly aware of her mother’s ancestry on one hand and her father’s ambition on the other. How do you think her character is influenced by this family background? How does Thomas Boleyn’s tendency to value his children in terms of their use to the Boleyn name affect Anne’s actions throughout her life?

2. By including Anne’s education in the courts of Margaret of Austria, Queen Claude and Marguerite of Valois, Alison Weir explores a fascinating world of high culture and intellect. What key lessons does Anne learn at each court, and how is her outlook changed by these three women? Does she manage to emulate them once she has the crown? Did anything Anne learned surprise you?

3. George Boleyn is a complicated and interesting character. He has a similar craving for power as Anne but has to find different ways to gain it. How are he and Anne alike, and how do they differ? On the surface he has far greater freedom, but is he also trapped into achieving the Boleyn family’s ambitions as firmly as she is?

4. Every scene in A King’s Obsession is shown from Anne’s point of view, so the narrative is shaded by her thoughts and emotions. How does this technique develop the “Anne Boleyn” Alison Weir has chosen to portray, and does sharing Anne’s viewpoint increase your empathy for her actions?

5. The behavior of powerful men toward women, including Mary Boleyn, causes Anne grief and anger. The shocking moments of discovery that a king’s sister is not protected, nor a favorite brother innocent, have a profound effect on Anne. How does she attempt to overcome this? How does she try to exercise her own control over others, and was there a scene when you felt she finally achieves this? When she does have power, does she ever use it well?

6. “ ‘You don’t love him, do you?’ Mary challenged. ‘You just want to be queen.’ ” Henry’s feelings for Anne are described by many as an obsession—-something emphasized even in the book’s title. Alison Weir’s interpretation shows Anne herself motivated by a desire for power rather than by love. Does this match with your idea of their relationship before reading the book and, if not, did Weir convince you? What is it about becoming queen that Anne finds so seductive?

7. Henry and Anne’s relationship is dominated by Katherine of Aragon, both in presence and absence. How does Anne reconcile her early affection for the queen with her need to remove and replace her, and justify her cruelty toward Katherine and Mary? Do you feel she starts to identify more with Katherine’s situation once she has won this battle, and when is this most starkly shown?

8. Anne’s role in encouraging Henry’s stance against the Church of Rome is an intriguing part of the novel, and she isn’t afraid to express her desire for change. How much do you feel this is through a powerful personal belief in the need for Reformation, and how much expedience to reach her own goals? How do Alison Weir’s descriptions of this period of history bring its turbulence to life?

9. A King’s Obsession is the second of six novels about the queens of Henry VIII. Anne’s impression of Henry is very different from that of her rival, Katherine. How does Alison Weir show Henry through Anne’s eyes, while retaining the character she developed in The True Queen, where Katherine of Aragon sees her adored husband very differently? How would you compare the voices of the two queens in the first two books in the series?

10. “ ‘Strike now!’ she cried, her heart hammering so hard and painfully in her chest that she thought there might be no need for any headsman.” The ending of A King’s Obsession is visceral and perhaps shocking but very vivid. How did you feel reading Anne’s last moments, and how effective did you find Alison Weir’s narration of her final experience on the block?

11. Alison Weir’s background as a historian means that she has distilled a huge amount of research into this novel, creating a rich and vivid background to the characters’ lives. However, as a novelist, she has had to choose a version of Anne’s story to tell. Do you agree with the journey Alison has given her, and did you discover a new angle on Anne’s life through A King’s Obsession?

Editorial Reviews

A persuasive attempt to restore the humanity of a tragic, misrepresented figure, one of history’s original nasty women . . . Weir’s fictional Anne is ferociously smart and guilty of nothing but craving the power that’s rightfully hers to claim.”—NPR

“This is a stunning, engaging, comprehensive and convincing novel. . . . Anne Boleyn: A King’s Obsession is important, page-turning biographical fiction, hauntingly and beautifully told in first-person narrative. It is psychologically penetrating and packed with wonderful, vivid scenes. [Alison] Weir’s characterisation is superb, and this complex novel will be, without doubt, one of the most admired works of historical fiction of 2017.”—Historical Novels Review

“One of historical fiction’s most compelling and exciting portraits of the enduringly fascinating and mysterious Anne Boleyn.”—Lancashire Evening Post

“Anne Boleyn, A King’s Obsession is beautifully written, exquisitely detailed, and gives readers a more down-to-earth picture of the often maligned Anne. . . . Don’t miss this series.”—Romance Reviews Today

“This Anne is clever and clear-sighted. . . . Those sympathetic to Boleyn tend to stumble at her documented spite towards Katherine of Aragon and Mary Tudor, but Weir roots this bad behaviour in understandable insecurity as the King’s ardour for her wanes and the longed-for son does not arrive. This tale of Anne’s ascent and demise cannot escape comparisons with Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall series, which deals with the same events. Weir’s version [is] detailed, immaculately researched and convincing. She is particularly interesting on Anne’s probable exposure to early feminist writings.”—The Times (UK)

“[Weir] explores Anne’s influences and motivations, creating a multifaceted portrait of an ambitious woman who reluctantly accedes to Henry’s courtship and later acts out of desperation to protect herself and her daughter, Elizabeth. Even readers who know Anne’s story well should gain insights from this revealing novel.”—Booklist

“A richly detailed rendering of the familiar Tudor drama . . . Weir brings considerable expertise to her portrait of Anne as ‘a flawed but very human heroine, a woman of great ambition, idealism and courage’ . . . [and] vividly depicts court life.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A well-written and fast-paced novel that should appeal to fans of Tudor-era fiction looking for a fresh look at one of the period’s most popular protagonists . . . Weir’s Anne, an intellectual and ambitious woman highly interested in the latest thinking about both religion and women’s social roles, fits in well with the recent impulse in both scholarship and fiction to reclaim Anne from being portrayed as merely a manipulative temptress and cold-hearted homewrecker. Anne in the years before she catches Henry’s eye is particularly interesting.”—Library Journal

“A marvelous book—Anne comes alive and leaps from the page, fascinating, enthralling, full blooded—you can’t help but fall in love with her. A brilliant evocation of the period and a knife-edge moment in British history. Wonderful.”—Kate Williams, author of Becoming Queen Victoria

From the Publisher

2017-04-02
A notorious Tudor queen is sympathetically imagined.Weir (Katherine of Aragon, 2016, etc.), prolific Tudor historian, biographer, and novelist, offers the second volume in her fictional series about Henry VIII's six wives, focusing on the outspoken, doomed Anne Boleyn. Anne is certainly the most famous of those unfortunate women and, as Weir admits in an afterword, the least knowable. While Katherine of Aragon left abundant letters, Anne did not, and testimony about her comes mainly from an ambassador to the court who was hostile to her. Weir brings considerable expertise to her portrait of Anne as "a flawed but very human heroine, a woman of great ambition, idealism and courage." Because Anne spent formative years at the French court, where feminist ideas were debated, Weir chooses to see her as an early feminist, repulsed by the widespread incidence of rape in the royal courts of France and England. Henry raped Anne's married sister, Mary, who continued an affair with him, ending up pregnant and cast aside; and even Anne's beloved brother George confessed, to her shock and disgust, that he "forced widows and deflowered maidens," inflamed by uncontrollable lust. Weir vividly depicts court life: the hundreds of attendants, the sumptuous pageants and celebrations, and Anne's amazing gowns and jewels. She reprises the plight of Katherine of Aragon and her daughter, Mary, both of whom Anne fervently wished dead; and she gives ample evidence for England's resentment of Anne, in and out of court. Despite Weir's well-informed portrayal of her cast of characters, the novel suffers from its focus on Henry's machinations to dissolve his marriage to Katherine, a process that took six long years of "unbearably frustrating" and nearly intolerable delays, marked by skirmishes, controversies, and conversations that become repetitive. After the pair are married, Weir deals sensitively with Anne's increasing desperation as she fails to produce a living son and witnesses the king's blatant philandering. The plot intensifies once Anne is accused of adultery and treason, culminating in a truly shocking and emotional execution scene. A richly detailed rendering of the familiar Tudor drama.

Kirkus Reviews