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Title: The Constant Princess
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Manufacturer: Touchstone
List Price: $16.00
Our Price: $8.39
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| Customer Reviews: |
| The Constant Princess by Touchstone Boring narrative and questionable history. Not recommended. | I've recently developed an interest in the Tudors and King Henry VIII. This was a dynasty that changed Europe forever. I've been watching the TV series and absolutely loved the novel "The Other Boleyn Girl" by this author. Naturally, I've also been doing my own research on the internet and trying to figure out the truth among all these fictionalized versions. That said, I'm still interested in reading the novels. I like a good story line and a well-paced tale. In the few versions of the story I've encountered, Katherine of Aragon was already a mature woman who King Henry VIII divorced and changed the history of Europe forever. I was drawn to this book because I wanted to learn something about Katherine's earlier history.
Katherine was the youngest daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. This was the couple who funded Columbus's expedition to the new world. They also were the couple who brought Christianity to Spain, expelled the Moors and created the inquisition. Spain was on the rise at that time and Katherine was betrothed to Henry's older brother when she was only three years old. As a teenager she was sent to England. It was a shock to her. The English climate was cold and damp and she missed the gardens and the warmth and the baths of Spain. Her wedding to Arthur was all pomp and ceremony and the couple was married for a few months before he died. The history books do not record the nature of their relationship, but in this novel, the couple had a hot romance.
After Arthur died however, Katherine was treated badly. For seven years or so, she lived in limbo. As her dowry wasn't fully paid, she wasn't given living expenses and she was not accepted at Court. However, when Arthur's younger brother Henry was about 18 and she was about 24 they were married, after the Church gave them a special dispensation. According to the novel, Katherine led a battle against the Scots while he was away in France. According to the internet, this battle occurred but it is credited to someone else. This part of the novel disturbed me because I am sure that if an English woman had ever led a battle, this is a part of history that would have been applauded by ever feminist group in the world. It's a good story, but true fiction. We do know though that Katherine bore six children. With the exception of her daughter Mary, all the others were stillborn or died shortly after birth. Later, Henry fell in love with Anne Boleyn, divorced Katherine and separated England from the Catholic Church. This novel doesn't get into all those details. It basically applauds Katherine's life in her early twenties and summarizes the rest in a couple of pages.
I found "The Constant Princess" hard to read because it seemed to add parts of history that never existed in real life. Surely, there were enough real experiences to base the novel on without going into conjecture. It also moved slower because much of it is about Katherine's feelings and there are pages and pages and pages of her thoughts about what was going on around her with very little action. So, unlike "The Other Boleyn Girl" which I read in one fell swoop and couldn't put down, "The Constant Princess" was a struggle to get though. | | The Constant Princess by Touchstone disapointing | | Call me a romantic, but i didn't really like this one. I thought the begining was really good, but i got about half way through the book and was dispointed. I know how the story is supposed to go, but i think i was hoping for more out of it. I read The Other Boleyn Girl and liked it, this one is different. I dont think i would recommend this one to a person just getting into the whole Philippa Gregory series. hope this helps. | | The Constant Princess by Touchstone The Constant Princess | | Get book and great way to learn history. So interesting to read character interaction. | | The Constant Princess by Touchstone Disappointing | | This is my least favorite book of Gregory's because I didn't like Catalina's character and I didn't like the parts of history that the author omitted from the story. I thought that Gregory should have included more of Katherine's marriage with Henry, not just the beginning and end of her marriage with him and I didn't really like the whole premise of why she lied to Henry about her virginity. The whole story seemed strained and the characters seemed to be one disappointment after another like Katherine's life. | | The Constant Princess by Touchstone BORING! | | After reading the other Boleyn girl I was hooked! The second book to come up was the constant princess. And what a boring book! It was really easy to put down and it felt like P.Gregory didn't know much about Katherine at all (not suprising how long ago she lived but still) and it felt like it was all about war. I had high hopes for this book... I would not read this book if I weren't to read the Tudor books. | | The Constant Princess by Touchstone Product Description | | "I am Catalina, Princess of Spain, daughter of the two greatest monarchs the world has ever known...and I will be Queen of England." Thus, bestselling author Philippa Gregory introduces one of her most unforgettable heroines: Katherine of Aragon. Known to history as the Queen who was pushed off her throne by Anne Boleyn, here is a Katherine the world has forgotten: the enchanting princess that all England loved. First married to Henry VIII's older brother, Arthur, Katherine's passion turns their arranged marriage into a love match; but when Arthur dies, the merciless English court and her ambitious parents -- the crusading King and Queen of Spain -- have to find a new role for the widow. Ultimately, it is Katherine herself who takes control of her own life by telling the most audacious lie in English history, leading her to the very pinnacle of power in England. Set in the rich beauty of Moorish Spain and the glamour of the Tudor court, The Constant Princess presents a woman whose constancy helps her endure betrayal, poverty, and despair, until the inevitable moment when she steps into the role she has prepared for all her life: Henry VIII's Queen, Regent, and commander of the English army in their greatest victory against Scotland. |
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