As Maureen Quilligan wrote in The New York Times Book Review of The
First Elizabeth, Anne Boleyn "was a real victim of the sexual scandals
her brilliant daughter escaped, and a subject Ms. Erickson's sensitivity
to sexual and political nuance should well serve." Indeed, Carolly
Erickson could have chosen no more fascinating and appropriate a
subject. Alluring and profoundly enigmatic, Anne Boleyn has eluded the
grasp of historians for centuries.
Through her extraordinarily vivid re-creation of this most tragic
chapter in all Tudor History, Carrolly Erickson gives us unprecedented
insight into the singularity of Anne Boleyn's life, the dark and
overwhelming forces that shaped her errant destiny, and the rare,
tumultuous times in which she lived.