The Queen's Fool, A Novel | 
| Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
Category: EBooks
List Price: $11.99
Buy New: $9.59
You Save: $2.40 (20%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  196 reviews
Sales Rank: 1457
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
ASIN: B0014IZ5RA
Publication Date: February 19, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
A young woman caught in the rivalry between Queen Mary and her half sister, Elizabeth, must find her true destiny amid treason, poisonous rivalries, loss of faith, and unrequited love. It is winter, 1553. Pursued by the Inquisition, Hannah Green, a fourteen-year-old Jewish girl, is forced to flee Spain with her father. But Hannah is no ordinary refugee. Her gift of "Sight," the ability to foresee the future, is priceless in the troubled times of the Tudor court. Hannah is adopted by the glamorous Robert Dudley, the charismatic son of King Edward's protector, who brings her to court as a "holy fool" for Queen Mary and, ultimately, Queen Elizabeth. Hired as a fool but working as a spy; promised in wedlock but in love with her master; endangered by the laws against heresy, treason, and witchcraft, Hannah must choose between the safe life of a commoner and the dangerous intrigues of the royal family that are inextricably bound up in her own yearnings and desires. Teeming with vibrant period detail and peopled by characters seamlessly woven into the sweeping tapestry of history, The Queen's Fool is another rich and emotionally resonant gem from this wonderful storyteller.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 191 more reviews...
Great book!! October 4, 2008
Another wonderful read from Philippa Gregory. I read this on the heels of "The Other Boleyn Girl" a little out of sequence, I understand. In comparing the two, for me "The Queen's Fool" is far more subtle than "Boleyn Girl" yet is every bit as intriquing and interesting. This author does a great job in making the reader think what was behind Mary and Elizabeth's behavior.
Highly recommend!
 One of my favorites September 22, 2008
I loved this book. My favorite Gregory novel is The Other Boleyn Girl, and this comes a close second.
Other reviewers have criticized the author for her portrayals of Mary and Elizabeth in this book, but everyone needs to keep in mind that we are viewing these women through Hannah's eyes, and this is fiction, not a historical textbook.
Hannah is a very likeable character, who struggles throughout the book to come to terms with her gift of sight, her religious faith and her place in the world as a woman.
In this book, as in The Other Boleyn Girl, it's the slow-building, passionate love story that touches me the most. The love story of Hannah and Daniel is very well-written and is my favorite part of the book. It is easy to see what draws them to each other and what keeps them apart. Though the road is bumpy, I was very pleased with the ending.
My only complaint would be that I thought the book ended a few pages too soon. (In fact, I would love to see a sequel about the next chapter in Hannah's life.) After everything Hannah went through to discover what she truly wanted, and after everything she went through to get it, I would have liked to see a more passionate ending and a little more assurance that Hannah's future would be as happy as I wanted it to be.
Philippa Gregory is brilliant! September 2, 2008
Philippa Gregory hit yet another high note with The Queen's Fool. I love reading Philippa's books because I never feel like I'm reading fact after fact. I feel like I'm reading just another story I love, like Twilight and other books such as those. Even though this is a different genre I never feel as if it's a bunch of facts. The Queen's Fool is a story of a girl named Hannah Verde. Though she changed it to Hannah Green when she came to England. Hannah came to England with her father; her father is a scholor and a bookseller. Back in Spain Hannah's mother was burned to death for being in the Jewish religon. Now her and her father have to keep their religon hidden at all times. While there in England Robert Dudley and his comrad John Dee visit the book shop. John Dee claims that Hannah has the "sight". So Hannah is sent to court to be the King's holy fool. When the king dies at the age of 15 his sister Mary steps up to the thrown. History knows this queen as the bloody Mary. Hannah then becomes Mary's holy fool. The Queen's Fool is a great story of Hannah, and you learn many things about Mary and her sister Elizabeth. I highly reccommend this book to all who are interested in history and I also recommened it to people who enjoy a thrilling book. Great book, give a chance, don't let the whole historical novel thing throw you off this is a great book!
 I don't get the rave reviewing... September 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I slogged through this novel, hoping to find some redeeming value, only to be disappointed. I found the pace slow, repetitive, and mostly boring. Some of the plot twists were interesting, but barely believable. The main character, Hannah, had no integrity. She curried favor with whomever she happened to be with at the time, and was very disappointing. No heroine here, really. I really wanted to like her, but her feminism and intermittant chutzpa just didn't correlate with what is known about women of the time.
The Queen's Fool August 31, 2008
Gregory is a great writer. She draws you in immediately and it's hard to put the book down.
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