Gregory’s latest strong on history weak in characters
THE KINGMAKER’S DAUGHTER
Philippa Gregory
Touchstone 432 pp.
For the fourth book in her bestselling “The Cousin’s War” series Philippa Gregory strays from well-known historical players to focus on the obscure Anne Neville daughter of Richard Neville Earl of Warwick arguably the most powerful man in England at the time (he put Edward Plantagenet on the throne). Anne like all of Gregory’s exclusively female protagonists begins her story at the mercy of the men in her life. She is a pawn of power a strategic piece in the game for the throne of England.
Gregory’s narrative begins during Anne’s childhood and increases in tempo as she becomes a commodity in the marriage market. She’s forcibly married to the Lancaster heir Edward Prince of Wales and then in a moment of supposedly powerful self-assertion marries Richard Plantagenet for love. Both marriages simply transfer power over Anne from father to husband but Richard and Anne’s interests do align and together they climb the ladder toward the throne knocking off those who would get in their way.
Aside from the marriages Gregory plays with familial ties; Anne’s relationship with her sister Isabel is both a source of comfort and turmoil. The sisters share a past that brings them together and an ambition that tears them apart. Ambitious sisters are territory Gregory knows well but while The Other Boleyn Girl was one of her most successful novels she doesn’t introduce anything new here. The storyline between the sisters seems stale — Gregory fails to infuse Anne and Isabel’s relationship with its own intrigue and spice.
Gregory also falls short with her supporting characters. The players — with the exception of the feisty Margaret of Anjou — are all variations of a one-dimensional grasping personality. Even Anne fails to grab attention constantly wavering from weak to strong and the reader is never on solid enough ground to relate. Gregory has done a great job in the past of writing characters with questionable morals that still remain sympathetic and likable but Anne’s cold ambition springs so suddenly throughout the novel that it is jarring and works to strip away whatever sympathies a reader might have.
The one thing that keeps this novel readable is the historical world around the characters; Gregory is a master at re-creating the past and drawing the reader into it. The flavour of old British dialect is consistent throughout and the descriptions of the homes dinners and fashions transport the reader into 15th century England.
