Perfect for fans of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', this is a remarkable love story with a background of religious and political turmoil in Tudor England. The year is 1527. Hans Holbein makes his first visit to England, sent by the great Erasmus to paint Thomas More, courtier, scholar, patron, and his family. More's splendid house on the river in Chelsea is at the centre of Tudor society, frequented by distinguished astronomers, artists, politicians and men of religion, as well as wards of court, prot�g�s and ...
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Perfect for fans of 'Girl with a Pearl Earring', this is a remarkable love story with a background of religious and political turmoil in Tudor England. The year is 1527. Hans Holbein makes his first visit to England, sent by the great Erasmus to paint Thomas More, courtier, scholar, patron, and his family. More's splendid house on the river in Chelsea is at the centre of Tudor society, frequented by distinguished astronomers, artists, politicians and men of religion, as well as wards of court, prot�g�s and many others. Two visitors to the great house find themselves irresistibly drawn to Meg Giggs, one of More's foster daughters. John Clement - dark, tall, elegant - studying to be a doctor, is a man of compelling presence and mysterious background. The other man is Holbein himself - warm, ebullient, radical and a painter of great renown. Meg finds herself powerfully drawn to these two wildly contrasting men. She will love one, and marry the other. A wonderful, rich novel, presenting the atmosphere of this Tudor household as rarely achieved, with an astounding ability to present to us the world of Holbein's paintings as well as a gallery of vividly realised characters.
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Add this copy of Portrait of an Unknown Woman to cart. $3.24, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by HarperCollins.
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Add this copy of Portrait of an Unknown Woman to cart. $3.24, good condition, Sold by HPB-Diamond rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2009 by HarperCollins.
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"Portrait of an Unknown Woman" by Vanora Bennett was the best book I read this past year. While discussing the lives of Sir Thomas Moore, his ward, and the painter, Hans Holbein, Bennett's book also explores an alleged secret message contained in Holbein's painting "The Ambassadors" as well as secret messages in other Holbein paintings. Bennett's book is wonderfully engrossing. It reminded me a little of "The Other Boleyn Girl" by Phillipa Gregory. I loved Bennett's book so much that I bought copies for Christmas presents for my stepmother, stepsister, and two friends.
dixiebrit
Jul 5, 2007
Excellent Historical Novel
If you enjoy history and historical novels (such as the Six Wives of Henry VIII and Marie Antoinette), this book is well worth your time. It is and excellent history of Tudor times told from an entirely different viewpoint: that of the adopted daughter of Sir Thomas More, one-time Chancellor to Henry VIII. It really captures the mood of London and the country in general prior to the original divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. It shows the confusion between the very Catholic English and the imported Lutheran/Protestantism from the Continent, the concerns that all these things were fanatical, and the thoughtfulness of the scholars of the age, among them More, Erasmus and Hans Holbein the Younger.
It is an excellent book, points to an intriguing mystery (the Princes in the Tower) and makes you think. Vanora Bennett is an excellent novelist and hopefully will be encouraged to continue in this vein. I only wish we could have read more about Meg and her husband John in their later life. I would love to find more original documents that would shed more light on their later life in Belgium and elsewhere. Thank you for a fascinating read. I wish there were more.
Cariola
Apr 1, 2007
Fantastic Tudor-Period Novel!
Be prepared to suspend your disbelief--just jump into the world of Meg Griggs, willingly lay aside historical fact, and you'll be in for a great reading experience. Vanora Bennett's tale of the "unknown" woman in Holbein's famous portrait of Sir Thomas More and family (identified in the artist's sketch as Margaret Giggs Clement, about whom quite a bit is actually known) will please historical fiction readers, especially those who enjoy novels by Philippa Gregory and Tracy Chevalier. Bennett delves deeply into Meg's romance with her former tutor, her relationship with her adopted father More, and her friendship with Holbein, the great portraitist of Henry VIII's court. Along the way, the religious turmoil surrounding the king's divorce throws the family and the country into turmoil, and Meg learns a shocking secret about her husband's past. Bennett's Meg is an educated, intelligent woman who takes pleasure in administering folk remedies to the poor, often challenging her doctor husband's expertise. My only quibbles with the book are Meg's immature outbursts and reactions, which seem highly out of character; and the formulaic "bodice-ripper" scenes, which come like clockwork and also seem out of character for Meg. Bennett plays with historical facts and invents quite a few of her own. Just remember that it is fiction and go along for the ride.