How long does it take to read The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn?
Robin Maxwell
The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn by Robin Maxwell takes about 5 hours 9 minutes to read at 250 words a minute.
About 5 hours 9 minutes
A weekend read
First published 1997. 281 pages, about 77,275 words.
11 days at 30 minutes a day
Estimate based on 275 words per page.
At other speeds
| Slow, 150 words a minute | 8 hours 35 minutes |
| Average, 250 words a minute | 5 hours 9 minutes |
| Fast, 400 words a minute | 3 hours 13 minutes |
The page count is the median across 17 editions, so your copy may differ. How we calculate.
About the book
A diary written by the second wife of King Henry VIII in which she recounts her life as lady-in-waiting to the queen while fending off royal advances until he breaks with Rome, divorces and marries her. The diary, which ends when she is beheaded, is filled with advice to her daughter on the way to handle men. The diary is found by her daughter after she becomes Queen Elizabeth I. Anne Boleyn was the second of Henry's six wives, doomed to be beloved, betrayed, and beheaded. When Henry fell madly in love with her upon her return from the French court, where she was educated, he was already married to Catherine of Aragon. But his passion for Anne was great enough to rock the foundations of England and of all Christendom. When the pope refused to dissolve his marriage to Catherine, Henry broke with Rome, founded the Church of England with himself at its head, and married Anne. But all too soon his passion faded; when Anne bore him not the promised son but a daughter, Elizabeth, Henry forsook her for another love, schemed against her, and ultimately had her sentenced to death. In Robin Maxwell's captivating new novel, Anne has kept, unbeknownst to the king, a secret diary that she presses into the hands of a confidante before she is put to death. She says it is a gift for the daughter she will never know. Years later, soon after Elizabeth ascends to the throne, Anne's confidante brings the precious diary to the young queen. In it, Elizabeth learns the truth about her much-maligned mother: her fierce determination, her hard-won knowledge about being a woman in a world ruled by despotic men, and her deep-seated love for the infant daughter taken from her shortly after her birth. These revelations shake Elizabeth to the core. As her mother's conquests and defeats unfold before her eyes, Elizabeth finds in them an echo of her own drama as a passionate young woman at the center of power. She too is besieged by the counsels and betrayals of the men around her - including…
Subjects: Fiction, History, Queens, Fiction, historical, general, Great britain, fiction
