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Title details for Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir - Available

Innocent Traitor

A Novel of Lady Jane Grey

by Alison Weir
Stina Nielsen
Audiobook
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I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live. Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir's enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey-"the Nine Days' Queen"-a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century. The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn's beheading and the demise of Jane's infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane's adolescent cousin, and Henry's successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor. Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy. Alison Weir uses her unmatched skills as a historian to enliven the many dynamic characters of this majestic drama. Along with Lady Jane Grey, Weir vividly renders her devious parents; her much-loved nanny; the benevolent Queen Katherine Parr; Jane's ambitious cousins; the Catholic "Bloody" Mary, who will stop at nothing to seize the throne; and the protestant and future queen Elizabeth. Readers venture inside royal drawing rooms and bedchambers to witness the power-grabbing that swirls around Lady Jane Grey from the day of her birth to her unbearably poignant death. Innocent Traitor paints a complete and compelling portrait of this captivating young woman, a faithful servant of God whose short reign and brief life would make her a legend.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 2, 2007

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781449898175
      • File size: 526320 KB
      • Duration: 18:16:29

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Alison Weir writes a splendid historical fiction with this story of Lady Jane Grey, who becomes the XX of Henry VIII's eight wives. Multiple talented narrators are well chosen for voices and viewpoints that collaborate to tell the story. Davina Porter's cold tones portray Jane's shrewish mother, Frances Brandon, who can't forgive her daughter for being born female. The regal-accented Gerald Doyle portrays self-interested John Dudley, who uses Jane as a political pawn, and Bianca Amato plays Queen Mary, who responds coldly to this political threat but melts later in compassion. In contrast are Jenny Sterlin's kindly nurse, Mrs. Ellen, and Stina Nielsen, who shows us Jane's development from dutiful child to contemplative girl at court and finally the 16-year-old young woman who faces execution with grace. S.W. (c) AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 2, 2006
      Popular biographer Weir (Eleanor of Aquitaine
      , etc.) makes her historical fiction debut with this coming-of-age novel set in the time of Henry VIII. Weir's heroine is Lady Jane Grey (1537–1554), whose ascension to the English throne was briefly and unluckily promoted by opponents of Henry's Catholic heir, Mary. As Weir tells it, Jane's parents, the Marquess and Marchioness of Dorset, groom her from infancy to be the perfect consort for Henry's son, Prince Edward, entrusting their daughter to a nurse's care while they attend to affairs at court. Jane relishes lessons in music, theology, philosophy and literature, but struggles to master courtly manners as her mother demands. Not even the beheadings of Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard deter parental ambition. When Edward dies, Lord and Lady Dorset maneuver the throne for their 16-year-old daughter, risking her life as well as increased violence between Protestants and Catholics. Using multiple narrators, Weir tries to weave a conspiratorial web with Jane caught at the center, but the ever-changing perspectives prove unwieldy: Jane speaking as a four-year-old with a modern historian's vocabulary, for example, just doesn't ring true. But Weir proves herself deft as ever describing Tudor food, manners, clothing, pastimes (including hunting and jousting) and marital politics.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 1, 2007
      Historian Weir has written ten biographies about the British monarchy. In her first novel, she tells the tragic story of Lady Jane Grey, who was the great-niece of Henry VIII and who reigned for nine days in 1553. Jane's parents, the Duke and Duchess of Suffolk, were ruthless in their political ambitions, and the author portrays them as abusive toward the precocious, intelligent, and pious Jane. Jane's happiest days were spent in the household of the Dowager Queen Katherine Parr, Henry VIII's sixth wife. Henry's son and heir, Edward VI, was a sickly nine-year-old when he was crowned upon Henry's death. Edward's sisters Mary (a devout Catholic) and Elizabeth (whose alliance was uncertain) were declared illegitimate. Jane, the avowed Protestant, was declared the next in line and at age 15 accepted the crown. Within days, the balance of power tilted to the Catholics, and Jane was dethroned and imprisoned by the newly crowned Queen Mary; she was beheaded in February 1554. Weir keeps a complicated story untangled with the deft use of multiple first-person points of view. The recording enhances the technique by using varied clear-voiced narrators. Highly recommended for fiction collections.-Nann Blaine Hilyard, Zion-Benton P.L., IL

      Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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