Historical Fiction Review – “The Raven’s Widow: A Novel of Jane Boleyn” by Adrienne Dillard

Many thanks to Adrienne for sending me a copy of her new, fantastic, historical fiction novel, “The Raven’s Widow: A Novel of Jane Boleyn”. Frequently in historical fiction and drama, Jane is portrayed as scheming, a gossip, and not thinking twice about sending her own husband and sister-in-law to the scaffold. Basically, a not very nice person. However, there is evidence that this portrayal is heavily exaggerated, inaccurate and that she was actually a bit of a scapegoat. “The Raven’s Widow” does a very good job in attempting to show Jane’s real story. There is only so much we know about the real Jane, but I felt the book helped to give an accurate picture of Henry VIII’s court through her eyes and dispel some common myths.

One common myth about Jane is her allegedly unhappy (and even occasionally violent) marriage to George Boleyn. This has always been given as a reason for her accusing him of incest with Anne Boleyn and for the lack of children in their marriage. However, in reality, their marriage was probably no more dramatic than any other marriage of that time and the novel did a great job in giving a very realistic picture of their marriage.

Also, the novel helped to offer good, plausible explanations as to why there was a lack of children. Even though there is no evidence of Jane miscarrying, it doesn’t necessarily mean she didn’t have them and I do agree with the idea that maybe she did become pregnant, but unfortunately did not carry the children to full term. I thought it was very good how the book included her possible pregnancies and how Jane and George had to cope with the losses afterwards.

The contrast between the scenes in the Tower at the end of her life and Jane’s rise to prominence in Henry VIII’s court only a few years earlier was also very good. The way the novel explored Jane’s last days, particularly in dealing with her nervous breakdown was well-written too. I liked the inclusion of the character Hugh Wynter throughout the novel too. It all helped to humanize Jane, which is a breath of fresh air from all the exaggerated caricatures we often see of Jane in other historical fiction and dramas.

Overall, an excellent and historically accurate attempt at showing Jane’s life as it probably really was – and you don’t often hear that about Jane!