The Autobiography Of Henry VIII: With Notes By His Fool, Will Somers (1998) - Plot & Excerpts
The book is a fictional diary written by King Henry VIII of England before his death and encompassing all his life, from early childhood and to his last day. After the King's death the diary is found by his personal fool, Will Somers, who included his views on events in it and sent it to Mary Boleyn's (and Henry's) daughter Catherine.The story follows Henry since he was a young boy, when he was "only a second son" and nobody had any expectations of him other than serve the church, and later when he made his friends for life and became a king and a husband, and much later when he started to change wives like socks and created his own church and fought a war and had a son and lost his health and the one thing that pushed him to do all he's done is the need to be loved - by his mothers, his wives, his subjects and even his enemies. A fascinating life story of a man who's done more in one lifetime than many would have done in two and would make a riveting novel in the hands of a competent writer.Unfortunately, Margaret George doesn't seem to be one.Apart from the King, everyone, but absolutely everyone, is either evil, demonic, useless or stupid. No one's graceful, intelligent, competent, without having some giant flaw that completely nullifies all of their abilities, while Henry, no matter his flaws, remains untouched - he would never have demolished all those lovely monasteries had that devil's messanger Cromwell not filled his head with Satanist propaganda; he would have never executed his beloved wife Anne was she not a deformed witch who practised Dark Magic; he would not have rejected Anna were she not fat and ugly, while being offcourse young and perky himself (not!). He is in continous mourning over Jane, conveniently failing to mention the only reason for that is being deprived of someone before being ready to discard them himself.Henry is the only smart, kind, generous, loving person in the book, and he is also good at fighting, dancing, hunting, composing, who everyone end up falling in love with - a Mary Sue if I ever saw one.More often than not Henry talks, thinks and reacts as a woman would - another failing of the author to get into the mindset of a man but her biggest mistake, her complete failure to understand and write a real person is the complete lack of repentance - halfway through the book, when I realised how understandably biased it was, I have been waiting for the end, where I expected to read Henry's thoughts about the things he believed at the time - how he regrets brutally ignoring his daughters, how he regrets believing the obvious lies about Anne Boleyn, how disgusting he must have looked in the eyes of Anna and Catherines, how strongly the loss of Jane affected him because it wasn't of his choosing.I expected all that because when the person is dying, he has no more need for pretence, for the burden of lying to oneself.There was none.What is worse, George could have done it so easily - make the diary disposable, have the King planing to destroy it after finishing but somehow not being able to. That she chose not to do it shows an unfortunate lack of depth and maturity (qualities her Henry also shares) of writing.
An easy read and entertaining. But it adds nothing new. It is written from Henry VIII's (with occasional notes from his fool Will sommers) POV so it might pertain to the stereotypes. Yet they are too stereotypical for my like. The dowdy old sexy nun who may have lied, may not but it is too pretty and dumb and submissive and haughty and overbearing on poor young handsome Henry who is also irrritated by her disdain of English people and the Scots and repulsed by her "gift". Will adds that she is fat and while he criticizes Henry, he often excuses, lamenting that poor Henry was too much of a dreamer to see the evil oportunists, including his wives, who pulled his strings. Anne is the charming but evil conniving scheming witch who Summers constantly calls her as such, and Henry later describes as ugly and working her magic beyond the grave. Oh and Katherine of Aragon had the monstrous baby while Anne didn't (which historically there is no evidence that either gave birth to deformed babies, in regards to Anne, it was mostly later propaganda by enemies). Jane the demure passive wife. Anne of Cleves, the gigantic obese woman which makes Henry so repulsed. Catherine Howard -I almost breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't depicted in the sa,e shade she's always depicted in fiction but that later went downhill with Will also calling her a slut and being so plain to everyone. The only wife who was portrayed accurtely (for the most part) was Katherine Parr. Her intelligence, wit, and charm, as well as her defense of her religion is well depicted here.Lastly Henry's daughters fall into the same old categories, to quote Sommers here, Mary an ugly wench and angel of vengeance and to quote Henry VIII, Elizabeth is not beautiful enough but smarter and the new hope but too scheming to ever make anyone happy. Also, does the author know that the men Henry refers to as inexperienced youths who never had a taste of war (some of them) in fact were in a war before?! Edward Seymour was among the many knighted in the King's second battle with France.The only courtier who was more or less assessed with good eyes by Henry and the author, was Thomas More. I felt the book was fairer to him than others.And that leaves the rest of Henry's family. Henry VII the evil shadow, the specter, the miser who has no love for his wife, Elizabeth of York knows no happiness and yet she prefers Arthur over Henry, and then Meg Beaufort the evil old hag.Great that she used the original letters (for that I gave it an extra star) but the portrayals were all stereotypical.
What do You think about The Autobiography Of Henry VIII: With Notes By His Fool, Will Somers (1998)?
This is a very long but readable novel purporting to be the autobiography of Henry VIII, with commentary by his court fool. It tracks the king's life from his earliest memory at the age of three until shortly before his death. It is vividly told, and even though scenery and small details are mentioned with photographic accuracy for the reader's benefit, it is done so subtly that said reader doesn't really mind. It gives us a glimpse into the innner life of someone often thought of as a "monster" who disposed of people around him with nary a twinge of conscience. What we get is a nuanced larger-than-life portrayal. The interspersed marginal comments of Will Somers serve to balance his perspective by occasionally switching the angle of the camera, as it were. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in the Tudor era.
—Richard
The Autobiography of Henry VIII is the first novel published by esteemed historical fiction novelist Margaret George. Although this book may seem like a real autobiography at first glance based on the title (of course it's not - how is that even possible?), this novel is actually a fictional firsthand account of the life of Henry VIII, as told by his fool, Will Somers.Sitting at a very thick 960 pages, The Autobiography of Henry VIII may seem an overwhelming feat to some readers, especially those skeptical about picking up this novel to begin with. However, if you know anything at all about the history of Henry VIII (and his six wives!), I highly recommend sticking it out. This novel will change your outlook on this king forever, and is much better than most other fictional accounts of Henry VIII's life.My own personal interest with Henry VIII and the Tudor monarchy peaked tremendously after reading The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. I found it grossly fascinating that Henry VIII - such a disgusting, yucky person both physically and mentally - had women pursuing him from every corner of Europe just because he wore a crown.This particular novel chronicles everything about the life of Henry VIII - his young adulthood, his conquests, his illnesses, his psychotic breakdowns, the banishment or deaths of his wives, and more - all told by the comedic persona of Will Somers. The Autobiography of Henry VIII reads quite smoothly, and is highly entertaining, especially since Henry is made to sound like an idiotic spoiled teenager.In this book (which I have no doubt is historically accurate on most accounts), Henry is a real piece of shit. With every person that does him any wrong, including his wives, Henry scrolls through his book of Scripture to find quotes he can bend and somehow apply to his "mistakes" (such as cheating and committing adultery). He then uses those quotes to persuade his court to banish that particular person or ritual from his kingdom.In The Autobiography of Henry VIII, Henry is a villain you love to hate. It's what makes this novel amazing and titillating. The amount of time and research George invested in to pen this novel is evident in her writing. This book is by far one of the best I've ever read not only in the historical fiction genre, but overall. I give this novel a full 10 stars out of 10 stars.Other amazing novels by Margaret George are Mary Queen of Scotland and the Isles, The Memoirs of Cleopatra, Mary, Called Magdalene, and Helen of Troy. She also recently released Elizabeth I.For more book reviews, please visit http://dreamworldbooks.com.
—Sarah
"I'm Henry VIII, I am, I'm Henry VIII I am, I am!" Wow! There's never a dull moment with old Henry. Teenage King, always warring with France, cuts ties with Rome and changes the course of history just so he can get a divorce, six wives - two have their heads lopped off, one dies in childbirth, one is too ugly, one won't provide him with a son (tsk! what was she thinking?) and the other gets to mop up his gangrenous leg until he dies. Phew!!!This is a fabulous book: long, but so worth it. Written from Henry's point of view so we get to see his life as he sees it. We all know what a bad-tempered tyrant he was supposed to have been, but in this book we get a glimpse at what may have made Henry make the decisions he made. He was born into royalty, taught to believe that he is above others (and boy, does he!) but we also see another side to him. There are times when I actually felt sorry for him; to be surrounded all your life by "yes-men" and never really knowing who you can trust must have been pretty tough even if you are surrounded by jewels and banquets all day long. Not surprisingly, his poor wives come in for a pretty raw deal; but again it is written from Henry's point of view. Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard never stood a chance and Katherine of Aragon was treated appallingly in later life when the King decided that he wanted to move on to a younger model. No wonder when it came to searching for a new wife 4th time around, all the eligable young European princesses were hiding in the shadows. This is a real tome of a book and one I enjoyed immensley. The fact that it took the author 15 years to research, I knew I was in safe hands with getting a wonderful peice of fiction based entirely on fact. I would highly recommend this to history fans. Big thumbs up for this one!
—Boof
