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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN num: 9780345495341
ISBN number: 0345495349
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 432
Printing Date: November 06, 2007
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: November 06, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 6319
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Product Description:
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.
“An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the . . . historical fiction game.”
–The Independent
“Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her very first work of fiction . . . Weir manages her heroine’s voice brilliantly, respecting the past’s distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit.”
–London Daily Mail
From the Hardcover edition.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Not too long of a book, but you probably won't want to put it down. It brings a story to life from English history that we don't hear that much about, and yet, it seems like it is a story that needs to be told. You will enjoy this book if you like historical fiction of the Henry VIIIth variety!
Rated by buyers -
I purchased this book, because my curiosity was piqued at the small but significant part she had in Phillipa Gregory's The Queen's Fool. She was thrown on the crown upon the death of King Edward, in hopes to prevent the Catholic Princess Mary from ascending. This book tells of her trying child hood and her cold calculating mother. Her entire childhood was preparing her for deceit. I cried with her when she was forced to marry and her times in tower holding steadfast to her faith. To some she may appear weak, but one must consider the bull crap women dealt with back then. I say she had balls and they shown in the end. I highly recommend this book to complete your royal fiction libary.
Rated by buyers -
This was the very first book by Alison Weir that I've read and I am DEFINITELY going to be reading more of her work! I was intrigued by the idea of a novel about Lady Jane Grey and am so happy to say that this book surpassed all of my expectations! It was interesting to follow the story from the points of view of different characters, most of whom are greedy and self-serving, with the exception of Jane herself. She, and her governess, are the only sympathetic characters in the story which makes it all the more tragic. I found myself sobbing at the end for this poor girl of 16 who lost her life because of the ambition of others. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone with even a slight interest in Tudor histoy, but would also suggest that they keep a box of tissues handy as they near the end.
Rated by buyers -
This is an amazing story of Lady Jane Grey. If you love Tudor history, this book is for you. I knew very little about the life of Lady Jane Grey before reading Innocent Traitor. After reading it, I researched the life of this tragic figure. I was delighted to find that Allison Weir's facts were accurate. While reading this book, I felt that I got to know Lady Jane Grey and understood the hardships she was faced to endure. I thought about her story days after completing the novel. I am looking forward to reading more from this author.
Rated by buyers 
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There's a great story here, but I'm not sure Allison Weir was the right person to write the novel. Her writing isn't technically bad, but the prose is dry at best and page-skimmingly dull at worst. If the novel were told from a single instead of several different very first person points of view, this might not be as much of a problem, but the pedestrian prose rendered the several points of view almost indistinguishable. I frequently found myself going back to check the section break to see whose point of view I was reading.
Others have mentioned this, but Weir also attempts to write part of the book from a small child's perspective, something which few novelists can pull off without it being precious. Weir both makes the child precious and gives her the vocabulary and observational powers of a modern historian, which makes it doubly fall flat.
Weir intends Lady Jane's story to inspire sympathy, but this also failed for me. Instead of feeling for Jane at her (occasionally very dark) worst moments, I was irritated by her woodenness and put off by her self-righteousness.
I do love Weir's histories, but I wish she would find a co-author with a talent for lively prose for writing her novels. Two stars because it was informative and a wonderful story, even with lackluster prose.
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