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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780312374617
ISBN number: 0312374615
Label: St. Martin's Griffin
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: April 17, 2007
Publishing house: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: April 17, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 46697
Studio: St. Martin's Griffin
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Product Description:
From the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette comes a powerful new novel about Catherine Parr, The Last Wife of Henry VIII.
The least known of Henry VIII’s six wives was the cleverest of them all. Alluring, witty, and resourceful, she attracted the king’s lust and, though much in love with the handsome Thomas Seymour, was thrown into the intrigue-filled snakepit of the royal court. While victims of the king’s wrath suffered torture and execution, Catherine withstood the onslaught, even when Henry sought to replace her with wife number seven. She survived her royal husband, and found happiness with Seymour---but it was shadowed by rivalry with the young Princess Elizabeth, whose affection Seymour coveted. Catherine won the contest, but at great cost.
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Rated by buyers 
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Carolly Erikson is capable of writing wonderful stories, not always accurate but entertaining to say the least.
Catherine Parr had been married before Henry VII but she had a good head on her sholders, no punt intended, she was smart, pretty for an older woman and knew how to please the disgruntled King Henry and help ease his aches and pains. As henry goes mad thinking everyone at court is out to get him Cathrine learns what a tight rope she walks when gaurds come for her.
Erikson can tell a great story as it truely shows in the Last Wife of Henry VIII , just don't expect an honest history lesson as some ares stray from fact.
Rated by buyers 
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Historical fiction often takes some liberties with facts as there are generally a number holes to be filled due to lack of information, particularly when it comes to how a character felt in a certain situation.
However, whilst not as much is known about Katherine Parr as some of Henry's other wives, enough is known about her to say this novel is completely historically inaccurate. It is not enough to simply say that this is a work of fiction and thereby excuse the liberties the author has taken with the historical timeline and historical figures.
A piece of historical fiction must be grounded in the facts to avoid being deemed a complete fabrication. Unfortunately Carolly Erickson does not do this and therefore the novel lacks credibility. She could have written a fictional story in a fictional place, based on the life of Katherine but changed the characters' names and it may have made for a good novel. However, she chose to base it on true characters of history and so alter their stories that even an amateur historian couldn't help but feel the characters had been cheated out of relaying their stories to the audience.
It is rather unfortunate as it started with promise but fell apart in the middle (when she wrote about a doctor by the name of Wendy, a name never used until J M Barrie invented it for Peter Pan in the late 1800's, I nearly put the book down!).
Needless to say, I don't recommend this novel if you are a fan of "true" historical fiction.
Rated by buyers -
Please don't get me wrong, I have nothing against historical fiction. But if one is going to use real and well known historical characters as protagonists, one should try to stick to well known facts... The only reason I give this book one star is because you can't go any lower... And I suppose also because it did have a strange way of making you read it until the end, if only out of morbid curiousity to see what other nonsense the author is going to come up with. I used to think that Erickson would be better off writing fiction - since her non-fiction often sounded like fiction anyway - but now I am not so sure. Bad romance novels perhaps? Oh, I know: she can write scripts for Showtime!
If you really want to read this book, make sure you don't buy it but get it at your local library. And I thought that the Sixth Wife by Suzannah Dunn took a lot of liberties!
Rated by buyers 
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For the past year, I have been very interested in learning about the lives of Henry VIII and his wives. This interest was sparked by reading some of Phillipa Gregory's novels, and finding myself completely engrossed! However, I could not find one on the life of Catherine Parr, and discovered The Last Wife of Henry VIII.
I cannot tell you how disappointed I was! It was a chore to read this book. It was written in a childish manner, something I could even describe as "cheesy". I don't believe that King Henry would call the Pope "Poop", or that instead of "Pope Clement" he would say "Pope Inclement". I also don't believe that Price Edward was a bumbling idiot that Henry was borderline ashamed of, who seemed to succeed at nothing.
It also veered off into strange directions, such as the several long chapters about Saint Agatha.
A better book to explore on Catherine Parr is Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir. This book does an excellent job describing Catherine. It goes into the details of her marriage with Henry, her love with Thomas Seymore, and even the issues with Princess Elizabeth. Eventhough she is only half the novel, I feel like I got a much better description of her and her life than reading this entire book.
Rated by buyers 
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This 2006 novel is one of those books I found almost impossible to put down and that I read in a very short time. Throughout, I kept telling myself that it just could not be true and that this was one of those historical novels that took liberties with history. I was so enchanted however, that I didn't check the facts until after the book was finished. To my surprise, it seems that most of the facts were true even though the author did take liberties with thoughts, feelings and romantic scenes. And it certainly gave me a pretty accurate portrait of Henry VIII and the people around him.
Catherine played an active role in what was going on in England at the time. She held various positions in the court throughout her life and at one time was held hostage along with her two stepchildren and second husband, John Nevil, by Northern rebels who rose up against the King when he broke from the Catholic Church, This scene is actively described in the book, along with all the court intrigues and rivalries at the time.
Henry VIII married Catherine Parr in 1843, four years before his death. She was in her early thirties at the time and had been widowed twice. It's a known fact that at the time she married the king, she had been having a secret romance with Thomas Seymour, the brother of the late queen, Jane Seymour. It's not clear when the romance started, but the book places it quite early in Catherine's life. This timeline might or might not be true, but it is a fact that she married Thomas Seymour after the death of the king and later died in childbirth.
By the time of Catherine's marriage to the king, he was 54 years old, very corpulent and suffering from a leg ulcer that smelled bad and needed daily draining. He was also irrational in his thinking. He had already had many people in his life murdered or tortured and had ultimate power over the life and death of all of his subjects. Catherine was kind to him and was more of a nursemaid and confidant than lover. However, she, too, often feared for her life when the king went into one of his rampages. She is depicted as a strong and intelligent woman whose joys in life were short-lived, but who made the best of her situation.
I really did enjoy this book and give it a high recommendation for lovers of historical fiction.
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