by Brandy Purdy
The remains of Katherine Howard and Lady Jane Rochford were entombed beneath the chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula near those of Anne and George Boleyn and the friends who died with them.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
THE BOLEYN WIFE
Brandy Purdy
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The suggested questions are included to enhance your group’s reading of Brandy Purdy’s The Boleyn Wife.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Discuss the roles guilt, jealousy, and vengeance play in the novel. How do these feelings affect and motivate Jane and influence the outcome of the story?
Discuss the relationship between Anne and George. Is incest a valid suspicion, or is this all in Jane’s mind? Jane blames Anne because George does not love her, and she is convinced Anne ruined her marriage—is this true?
Discuss Catherine of Aragon and the stance she takes regarding her marriage to Henry VIII. She could have made things a lot easier for herself by giving in, but she chose to stand her ground. Do you admire her for this, or not? Do you think she did the right thing?
Discuss the song “The Holly” and the way it is used in the novel. It is sung twice, first by Henry and later by Anne. How does the meaning, the message conveyed by the song, change between the two performances?
Discuss Jane’s relationship with Cromwell. Each uses the other; does each of them get what they are expecting from the relationship, or does it turn out to be more than they bargained for?
Discuss Mark Smeaton. Why does he admit to being guilty? Does torture alone induce his confession?
Discuss the impact the executions of George and Anne Boleyn have on Jane’s life.
Discuss Jane Seymour. Did she really love Henry, or was her every move calculated, either by herself or her family? Was she playing Anne Boleyn’s game?
Discuss the role of childbirth in the novel. So much depends on it; it is a matter of life, death, and also, for queens and noble-women, of providing a male heir. Both Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn lose Henry’s favor when they fail to give him a son. Jane Seymour dies after giving birth to a son. Jane Boleyn has strong maternal yearnings; discuss how her dream of motherhood becomes a nightmare and how this influences her behavior.
Discuss Anna of Cleves’s role in the novel. What do you think of her ruse to make herself unattractive to Henry?
Discuss Katherine Howard and the role sexuality plays in her life and how it influences the decisions she makes. Katherine’s sexual experiences at such an early age often seem shocking to modern readers; discuss how our modern beliefs about childhood and child abuse differ from those of the Tudor era, when women were often married and mothers by the age of sixteen.
Discuss the role ghosts play in the novel. Are the ghosts Jane sees real, or are they delusions of her mind? Is Jane really insane?
Which of the five wives of Henry VIII who appear in this novel was the happiest one? The luckiest one? The unluckiest one? Discuss the five women and how they were alike and how they differed from one another.
Discuss the enduring fascination with Anne Boleyn. Of all of Henry’s wives, she is the one most written and talked about. Why? What is it about Anne Boleyn that still captivates us more than four hundred years after her death?
15. Jane has long been vilified as the woman whose testimony helped send Anne and George Boleyn to their deaths, and who later aided and abetted Katherine Howard’s adultery. After reading her story, in her own words, do you think she has been judged harshly or justly? Has your opinion altered? Are you more, or less, sympathetic towards her?
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Copyright © 2010 by Brandy Purdy
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ISBN: 978-0-7582-5701-7
