All Hallows and Melusina

The first Philippa Gregory’s book I read was „The Other Boleyn Girl”, about Anne Boleyn – Henry the Eighth’s wife, and her sister – Henry the Eighth’s mistress. I wasn’t impressed with the writing, I’m afraid. Despite this fact I found the book very interesting because of its historical background and completely different point of view, showing the relationship between sisters, not only as a historical fact from an encyclopedia, but also as an emotional competition. Philippa Gregory emphasized the small details which were critical for the English history and which were based on the most common and basic human feelings, like love, passion, jealousy and hatred. The story shown by Gregory in this book was filmed, and the film was very successful not only in the UK but also worldwide. 

“The White Queen” is also a historical novel. Many parts of the story are fictitious but they are based on the real history of the UK. It is the story of the cousins’ war between the House of York and Lancaster in XV century. The “White Queen” is Elizabeth Woodville, a young Lancastrian widow, who is loved by the charismatic and invincible King of England Edward the Fourth of York. He decided to marry her, which created a lot of new enemies for him, who didn’t agree with his will, and so didn’t want to accept Elizabeth as a right Queen of England and their children as the heirs.

Elizabeth is shown as a fascinating heroine who is beautiful, smart, strong, ambitious and confident. She believes in magic and relies on Melusina, the water goddess. The legend of Melusina and the descriptions of the magic practices make this book fabulous. The whole story is more powerful and mystical because of magic, and shows how human behaviour and choices are hardly determined by everything we believe in.

“The White Queen” is a book about being a woman in a men’s world, about being a lover, mother, daughter and widow in the medieval period. It’s a book about choices, worries, lost opportunities, fears and hope. Philippa Gregory was asked if she could go back in time and live in any of the royal courts which one would she choose she replied: “I would be absolutely mad to want to be a woman of any of these times. A Tudor or Plantagenet woman was wholly ruled by men: either father or husband. She would find it difficult to seek any education, make her own fortune, or improve her circumstances. If one could go back in time and be a wealthy man these would be times of adventure and opportunity but still tremendously dangerous”. I have to agree with her on one hand, but on the other hand we need to remember that despite the fact that women couldn’t vote at that time and were dependent on men, they were able to give men their heirs. This fact was essential and remains the same these days. This truth can easily be found in the discussed book: “He promised her that he would give her everything, everything she wanted, as men in love always do. And she trusted him despite herself, as women in love always do.”