THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII.

UK,thick 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn thus.FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj - absence of publisher's price as a Book Club subscription issue.Bright,crisp,clean,glossy,wrap-around red background with colour pictorial Henry VIII full-length painting with his wives' heraldic badges arranged in an arc above his head,to front panel with white lettering,a red spine/backstrip with thumbnail colour illustration of the King from front's design,also with similarly coloured lettering,wives' colour illustrated heraldic badges with white+gold coloured lettering; with negligible shelf-wear,bumping,creasing to edges and corners – no nicks,tears or splits present.Top+fore-edges generally bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound – no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners – near pristine, possibly unread,apart from my own collation.Publisher's bright,crisp, clean,sharp-cornered,original plain red cloth boards with bright,crisp, blocked gilt lettering to spine/backstrip and immaculate/clean plain white endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,v-ixpp+1-479pp [paginated] includes separate contents+illustrations lists/tables,a Prologue,Pts 1-5 comprising 5,5,3,3,and 3 chapters respectively,an Epilogue,48pp contemporary facsimile b/w+colour illustrations reproductions in 6 blocks of 8pp apiece,between pp50/1,pp146/7,pp242/3,pp306/7, pp338/9 and pp402/3 respectively,References,Reference Books and an Index; plus [unpaginated] half-title with author's other works listed to verso of same,title pages,2 double-page genealogical family tree charts: Plantagenet descent of Henry and his Queens and The Tudors and their Rivals,and to the rear 2pp blanks.
Visually the exterior appearance is exceptional for a book of it's age, and even internally,the book is also in an exceptional condition/state of preservation and presentation.It really is an exceptional copy for brightness and cleanliness. Divorced,beheaded,died; divorced,beheaded,survived.The six wives of Henry VIII - Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr - have become defined in a popular sense not so much by their lives as by the way these lives ended.Divorced,beheaded,died; divorced,beheaded, survived.In the same way their characters are popularly portrayed as female sterotypes: the Betrayed Wife,the Temptress,the Good Woman,the Ugly Sister,the Bad Girl and,finally the Mother Figure. But,as Antonia Fraser brilliantly and conclusively proves,they were rich and feisty characters.They may have been victims of Henry's obsession with a male heir,but they were not willing victims.On the contrary,they exhibited remarkable degrees of spirit and defiance of which women living now might still be proud.They displayed considerable strength and intelligence at a time when their sex supposedly possessed little of either.
Antonia Fraser deals with each woman in turn with sympathy - the sympathy they deserve for having had the unenviable fate of being Henry's wife.Inevitably there was great rivalry between them,so high were the stakes in the great game of marrying the King of England. There was jealousy too - the desperate jealously of Queens who found themselves abandoned,but also the sexual jealousy of the King who discovered himself betrayed. The story Antonia Fraser tells is romantic and cruel,funny and sad, dramatic and enthralling.This is historical biography at its very best. Please contact seller,for correct shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas customers - BEFORE ordering through the order page! ** N.B. ALL buyers please note,stocks' actual shipping/P+p costs are adjusted and any difference is refunded,after order's receipt and before the order's despatch, especially if the item(s) are offered either P+p included/FREE. ** N.B. US/Canada customers please be aware: Standard AIRMAIL postage from UK to these destinations can now cost more than the price of the book! If speed is not of the essence,then Economy rate is recommended - at approx. anything from a 1/3rd to 1/2 of the standard AIR quote/rate - sometimes arriving sooner than the 42 days - but not always.