The Other Boleyn Girl (2004) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Mary Boleyn: Narrator and central character. Younger sister of Anne. Given the title of Lady Carey upon her first marriage to William Carey.
• Anne Boleyn: The sister of Mary and a central character of the story. She was very strong willed and did whatever it took to get what she wanted. She took the King's attention from Mary and with considerable conniving eventually married Henry VIII to become his second queen.
• George Boleyn: Brother of Anne and Mary; a prominent figure in the book, who arranges a lot of the meetings
• Jane Parker: Vindictive and unhappy wife of George Boleyn
• Henry VIII: The King of England
• Thomas Howard: The driving force behind the Boleyn/Howard family Duke of Norfolk
• Sir Thomas Boleyn: Father of Anne and Mary Boleyn
• Catherine of Aragon: King Henry's first wife, she came from the Spanish court and was the mother of Mary
• William Carey: First husband of Mary Boleyn
• Mary Tudor: Daughter of King Henry and Catherine of Aragon became Mary 1 of England
• Elizabeth Tudor: Daughter of King Henry and Anne Boleyn became Elizabeth I of England
• William Stafford: 2nd husband of Mary Boleyn, not a rich man but very sweet and romantic and caring.
• Katherine of Aragon (Catherine of Aragon): 1st wife of Henry VIII, is a very sweet woman, kind hearted and knows the place of a Queen, which proves to be her downfall.
• Francis Weston: Courtier at the Court of Henry VIII
• Henry Percy: First love of Anne Boleyn
• Jane Seymour: A member of the court and a member of a competing family to the Boleyn/Howard clan.
• Henry Norris: Courtier
• Madge Shelton: Cousin to Anne and Mary Boleyn, also thought to be a mistress of Henry VIII
• Viscount Rochford: George Boleyn's title, brother to Anne and Mary Boleyn
• Thomas Wyatt: Courtier and poet at the Court of Henry VIII
• Thomas Cromwell: Secretary to Henry VIII planned coup d'etat against Anne Boleyn and her faction at court, gather evidence for her trial
• William Brereton: Courtier at Court of Henry VIII
• Thomas More: Chancellor of England
• Charles Brandon: Best friend of Henry VIII and married to Henry VIII's younger sister Mary who had first been married to the King of France,
• Grandmother Boleyn: Anne and Mary's Grandmother, mother of Thomas their father
• John Seymour: Father of Jane Seymour
• Bessie Blount: Another mistress of Henry VIII, mother to his recognised illegitimate son Henry Fitzroy, who was married to cousin of Anne and Mary Boleyn - Mary Howard, Daughter of Duke of Norfolk.
• Cardinal Wolsey: Cardinal tried to obtain divorce for Henry VIII from the Pope and failed
• Mark Smeaton: Musician at the Court
• Joss: Add a description of this character.
• Señor Felipez
• Thomas Cranmer: Archbishop
• Mendoza
• Flo
• Bishop Fisher: Bishop, friend of More
• Henry Fitzroy: Bastard son of Henry VIII
• Tom Stevens
• Jimmy
• Cardinal Campeggio
• Lord Trevelyan
• Arthur
• Jesmond
• Mary Talbot
• Catherine Carey
• Richard Brent
• Megan
• Margaret Steyne
• Charles of Spain: King of Spain
• King Francis: King of France, rival of Henry VIII
• Marianne
• Katherine Woodville
• Edward Seymour
• John Woodville
• Anthony
• Richard Woodville
• Giorgio
• Ishraq
• Lady Almoner
• Isolde
• Roberto
• Brother Peter
• Freize
• Luca Vero
• Baby Henry
• Uncle Howard
• Your Majesty
• Archbishop Cranmer
• Jane Rochford

Quotes edit see section history

• “You can smile when your heart is breaking because you're a woman.”

• “But Henry passed a law, another new law, which said that English disputes could only be judged in English courts. Suddenly, there could be no legal appeal to Rome. I remembered telling Henry the Englishmen would like to see justice done in an English court, never dreaming that English justice would come to mean Henry's whim, just as the church had come to mean Henry treasury, just as the Privy Council had come to mean Henry and Anne's favorites.”

  Mary

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• We never look back. We have no time for regrets or second thoughts. If a plan goes awry we make another, if one weapon breaks in our hands we find a second. If the steps fall down before us we overleap them and go up. It is always onward and upward

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• “I was born to be your rival,” she said simply. “And you mine. We’re sisters, aren’t we?”

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• “Every woman has to have something which singles her out, which catches the eye, which makes her the center of attention.

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• Katherine of Aragon was speaking out for the women of the country, for the good wives who should not be put aside just because their husbands had taken a fancy to another, for the women who walked the hard road between kitchen, bedroom, church and childbirth. For the women who deserved more than their husband’s whim.

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• I could not say that I regretted loving William, for every day I loved him more. In a world where women were bought and sold as horses I had found a man I loved; and married for love. I would never suggest that this was a mistake.

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• Before anything else I was a woman who was capable of passion and who had a great need and a great desire for love.

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• Your trouble, William, is that you have no ambition. You don’t see that there is in life only ever one goal.” “And what is that?” William asked. “More,” George said simply. “Just more of anything. More of everything.”

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• I simply loved him as if he were my one and only lover, and he loved me too with the same simplicity of appetite and desire which made me wonder what I thought I had been doing all those years when I had been dealing in the false coin of vanity and lust. I had not known then that all along there had been this other currency of pure gold.

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• “You have to keep him coming forward,” she said. “Keep him coming forward but never let him think that you come forward yourself. He wants to feel that he is pursuing you, not that you are entrapping him. When he gives you the choice of coming forward or running away, like then—you must always run away.”

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• There could hardly be a world for me without Anne, there was hardly world enough for us both.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Hever Castle: The Boleyn's country home, where Mary's children were kept.
• Tower of London: A royal home, later to become a prison for royals.
• England
• France
• Spain: Birthplace of Katherine of Aragon.
• Greenwich
• Europe
• Northumberland
• Rome
• Calais
• Windsor
• Norfolk
• Pavia
• Wales
• Jesmond
• Richmond

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Glossary edit see section history

• mountebank: A flamboyant charlatan

Series & Lists edit see section history

Preceded by The Constant Princess, and followed by The Boleyn Inheritance.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Philippa Gregory (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Romantic Novel of the Year Award (RoNA) (2002, Winner)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PR6057.R386 O84 2002
• Dewey: 823.914

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Genre Fiction › Historical
• Books › Romance › Historical

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• http://www.philippagregory.com

Movie Connections edit see section history

• The Other Boleyn Girl (IMDb): 2008

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history