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'A great adventure, powerfully told'
(Philippa Gregory )(Women's Journal )
'wonderful historical novels'
(Alison Weir )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
78 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great medieval love story,
By A Customer
This review is from: Katherine (Coronet Books) (Paperback)
Katherine de Roet, mistress and later wife of John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, through her children by John is the ancestress of just about every Royal English line - Plantagenets, Tudors and Stuarts. I first read this book when I was in my early teens and am still reading it 40 years later. Jewel bright in its descriptions, it takes the reader through turbulent times in the 14th century. So much we can never know, but it seems that the affair between Katherine and John was a great love story - they eventually married. It inspired me to visit her tomb in Lincoln Cathedral and the little Lincolnshire village of Kettlethorpe where she once lived. Was she as beautiful as the book implies? I would have loved to have met her.
48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
History & Romance,
By
This review is from: Katherine (Coronet Books) (Paperback)
Anya Seton's Katherine is both a romance and an historical novel. It is the story of Katherine Sywnford (nee de Roet) and of course her romance with John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, from which union sprung the Beaufort line. The historical detail is good and characterisation is excellent. Some of the novel is seen from the view of Katherine's brother-in-law, Geoffrey Chaucer, and extracts of his poetry are used in chapter headings. Seton makes her characters sympathetic, but real. You can clearly see the attraction of the powerful John of Gaunt, but his faults not passed over and it is clear where the pride of the House of Beaufort came from! I found Seton's portrayal of Richard II to be quite unsympathetic, but this worked within the context of her story, so I shan't quibble too much as I did find this hard to put down once I got going!The only thing I would really have liked would have been a bit more of an historical note at the end, in the style of Sharon Penman, giving a little more information on some of the characters and events. There is some of this in the introduction, for example on the existence of Blanchette, but I feel it would have been better at the end and enlarged on slightly. The only biography I have seen available on Katherine Swynford has been very short, and Seton says most of what we know of her is from where her life intersects with that of John of Gaunt, so I would be interested in knowing how Seton surmised other events she depicts, and her reasoning on decisions on the fate of Blanchette who has seemingly not been acknowledged by all historians.
29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A vivid portrayal of love and politics in medieval England,
By
This review is from: Katherine (Coronet Books) (Paperback)
I have just re-read this book for the third time,having fallen in love with it many years ago in my early teens.Anya Seton's characterisation of the people thronging this book is its main strength, but the historical research places it firmly in its period and really brings those times to vivid life for the reader, without being stuffy or worthy. Anya Seton draws the reader into the medieval world of England as it really must have been, describing life for the rich and poor, and those in between, in a way that is completely credible. Katherine's story is amazing and uplifting, and of course the fact that it is true makes it all the more entrancing. If you believe in 'love conquers all' and enjoy stories set in the past, this is the novel for you. A real page-turner that will make you wish you had a time machine to travel back to Katherine's era. I can't recommend the novel highly enough!
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