Erickson's avowed practice of giving equal weight to each part of a subject's life, rather than concentrating on the period when the subject was "famous," causes two major problems this time. First, there is (or was at the time of Erickson's work) little or no documentation of Anne Boleyn's early life; thus, for much of the book we are repeatedly confronted with statements of how Anne "must have" felt, reacted, behaved, etc. Second, the short period in which Anne strutted upon the world stage skims by far too quickly, with too little detail. True, Anne "must have" felt that way about events herself -- but surely the benefit of time and perspective is that we can linger and delve into the subject. Perhaps it is impossible to write a really adequate biography of Anne Boleyn.

In a manner which I have found unfortunately typical of Carolly Erickson's writing, "Mistress Anne" contains many details about court life (including "trivia" not typical of books on the subject), yet not enough about Anne herself. The rather rambling references to, for example, Anne's days at the French court became tedious. My impression was of a collection of material which could be interesting in a "classroom lecture" setting, where it is assumed that the hearers are studying the entire era and would enjoy tidbits not found in their textbooks, but which makes boring reading on its own.

While this book was a good source of information on Anne Boleyn's world, the facts given about Anne herself were sketchy at best. In spite of fascinating details such as descriptions of the French court where Anne grew up and the accounts of the court procedures of Henry VIII's divorce from Katharine of Aragon, one never really gets the feel of Anne as a real person. The lack of information about Anne's day-to-day life is one reason for this, but the fact remains that this is simply not one of Erickson's best biographies.

Enjoy this book, but read Antonia Fraser's "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" for a truer portrait of Anne Boleyn.

I was impressed with this novel, which I found while searching for biographies of Henry VII of England. The author really made the period come alive. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Henry VII; the Wars of the Roses and just English history in general. By the way, it's not a "trashy" novel, so for those of you looking for romance/historical, this one's not for you! But it's very interesting & well-written so if that's what you want, I recommend it.