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The Fifth Queen is trilogy of historical novels by English novelist Ford Madox Ford comprising The Fifth Queen: And How She Came to Court (1906), Privy Seal (1907), and The Fifth Queen Crowned (1908). It presents a highly fictionalised account of Katharine Howard’s arrival at the Court of Henry VIII, her eventual marriage to the king, and her death.
The main strengths of this trilogy are considered by many writer admirers and critics - notably Graham Greene, Alan Judd and William Gass - to be its impressionistic qualities, its creation of a believable approximation of Tudor English and its successful creation of atmosphere.
One critic stated that it was clearly a work of literary fiction, inescapable, and should be avoided by any reader who prefers a more opaque style.
Graham Greene has written that in The Fifth Queen Ford tries out the impressionist method. He likens the King to a shadow with the story focusing on the struggle between Katharine and Cromwell. Begging the question of whether the King’s lighting is more like a stage production than novel, again alluding to a fictionalisation rather than truly historical style.
Alan Judd, in his 1991 biography of the author, states that this version does not hinder the sense of reality in its effective style portraying a contrivance of Tudor English. He likens the author’s dialogue to poetry. (wikipedia.org)
