Buggery

[hackthis_archive]

In the last 36 hours I have discovered The Tudors. I cannot begin to tell you how this has wreaked havoc on my other plans for the weekend, especially when I have to keep getting dragged out the front door. All I can do is point to my icon and say, "WTF, Y'all?!" Why didn't anybody tell me about this? (Not you, ethrosdemon, you don't count b/c we never like the same thing at the same time. )

Seriously I'm only up to 1.05, so don't spoil me, but it's got craziness everywhere, intrigue, insanity, gayness, and when did Henry Cavill get hot? He was always so thin and not beef-noodle hearty (TM ethrosdemon). I feel cheated! Of course he's gay, everybody hot is gay. Typical ;-) It also has Fiona from Burn Notice, and I don't even mind Johnathan Rhys Meyers here, even though I've always thought he was extremely dodgy and unattractive, it works here. I wonder if he hits on Henry Cavill in RL?

In related questioning, does anybody have any recommendations for good Henry VIII reading? I'm looking for more court-related and less military-based. Ideally, I'd like a book that focuses on Henry himself through the years and his relationships as opposed to a POV from the wives or kids. Also, don't recommend Antonia Fraser as I don't like her writing. ETA: Non-fictional preferred over fictional.

Comments

[mardia.livejournal.com]

Echoing everyone's recs of Phillipa Gregory's The Other Boleyn Girl. And as for non-fiction, I'll also echo the rec of Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII, it's a long read, but I could not put that thing down at ALL. So engrossing, I can't even tell you. And I've always gotten the sense that historians just don't know what the hell to make of Henry, dude was WHACKED in the head. But I'm actually taking a class on the Tudor/Stuart period, and I have a paper coming up, so I'm going to poke around the libraries, might update this again...

Off the top of my head, I'll also recommend Karen Lindsay's Divorced, Beheaded, Survived... which is a 'feminist' look at Henry's six wives. I do think she tries to whitewash Anne too much, but her outlook on Anne of Cleves is pretty awesome and IMO, the most reasonable theory out there. And despite supposedly focusing on the wives, she does focus quite a bit on Henry's character--clearly not in a nice way, heh.

The Divorce by Martin H. Albert (I'm pretty sure this is the right author) is a really great, pretty engrossing look at the divorce of Catherine and Henry. Again, non-fiction, dealing heavily with all the players and diplomats involved, not to mention all the politics behind it. Really great looks at Catherine, Anne, and Henry as well.

Also, I haven't read any of his stuff, but from what I hear, Eric Ives is a BIG name in the Tudor historian world, you might want to check his stuff out.

Fiction-wise: There is a LOT of stuff out there, but I haven't read all that much of it, and I haven't read this so I can't tell you if it's any good, but Margaret George wrote a fictonal "autobiography" of Henry. I flipped through the book at the store one day, and if you've got a solid grasp of the history, it looks like a really interesting take on how Henry alternately excuses and justifies his behavior and actions.

(ETA: and now that I've posted this, I realize how long it is. OMG so sorry!)

[hackthis.livejournal.com]

It's not too long, it's very well thought out and informed. Thank you!