Review: Innovative, meticulously researched, and quite entertaining
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 13, 2014
Biographies can be dry, dull and lifeless, a repetition of historical facts that never properly paints the individual being written about. We understand what the person did or accomplished, but we miss who the person really was, what made them tick.Barbara Parker Bell remedies this by taking the incredibly novel approach of examining Anne Boleyn’s wardrobe to flesh out who she really was. Bell does some remarkable scholarly work here, meticulously documenting and researching the clothes Anne Boleyn wore during different periods in her life. The results are stunning; this feels like one of the most complete portraits of a historical figure I’ve ever read.Bell relates Anne Boleyn’s history in a truly engaging manner, telling it as if it were a story, filled with beautiful descriptions. The best biographies are ones that read like great novels, and Inside the Wardrobe of Anne Boleyn is a prime example of this.