Women of the World
by Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 9/11/2006
Historical fiction gets the personal touch with these novels written from the point of view of women in history. Margaret George's Helen of Troy (Viking, Aug.) brought readers inside the mind of the legendary beauty, while the following stories give personas to a virtually unknown explorer, a first lady, a Roman governor's wife and a handful of European royals.
| Inés of My Soul by Isabel Allende (HarperCollins, Nov.) | The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory (S&S/Touchstone, Dec.) | Pilate's Wife by Antoinette May (Morrow, Oct.) | Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund (Morrow, Oct.) | Mary by Janis Cooke Newman (MacAdam/Cage, Sept.) | Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir (Ballantine, Mar. 2007) | |
| Narrator: | Spanish conquistadora Inés Suárez | The women of Henry VIII's court | Claudia, wife of Pontius Pilate | Marie Antoinette | Mary Todd Lincoln | Lady Jane Grey and those around her |
| Who knew?: | Suárez was just a humble seamstress, but following her ne'er-do-well husband to the New World led to her becoming one of Chile's founding mothers. | Henry's fifth wife, Katherine Howard, usually depicted as stupid and promiscuous, was really just a poorly educated teen out of her league. | Because Jerusalem "was a tinderbox in those days," Pilate forbade Claudia to attend the crucifixion. | The queen of France did not say "Let them eat cake!" (Though she did love to party, at least early in her reign.) | Mary seduced poor Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln, drew his attention to the slavery issue, and helped him prepare for the Lincoln-Douglas debates. | 16-year-old Jane's parents, Lord and Lady Dorset, so badly wanted her to become queen that they put her life in jeopardy as political violence increased. |
| The female perspective: | "we sighted land.... Sailors offered to carry us, but [we] lifted our skirts and waded to shore. We preferred exposing our calves to being slung like sacks of wheat over the men's shoulders." | "It is a waste of time and trouble trying to please a man.... Tonight, the king is so cross with the queen that he hardly looks at me [Katherine] and I have wasted my new gown for nothing." | " 'Are you a king, the king of the Jews?' ... My husband leaned forward, his gaze curious.... I held my breath. Jesus' manner seemed strangely calm, without defenses, almost provocative." | "I hear the jeers and cries of derision, but my eyes and my ears are turned inward. Let them see a sacrificial lamb on its way to slaughter. Now is the time to think of those I have loved." | "[M]y husband appeared determined.... We stayed awake late together, working upon gesture and intonation; and I dedicated so many hours to coaxing [him] to imitate the Yankee accent." | "I walk... averting my eyes from the scaffold on which I will certainly die on Monday. Inside, I am rejoicing that I have remained true to myself and strong in my beliefs." |
