"Step back into the time of Catherine de Medici in this speculative portrait of the divisive woman."
The Devil's Queen
Genres: Historical
Posted: July 13, 2009
As a woman of the 16th century, Catherine was the pawn of men and politics. Like all women of the time, she was bound by God, duty, the law and her father to be used in whatever way circumstance warranted. As the wife of a king and the mother of three others, Catherine enjoyed power and privilege. As an outsider in the French court, she was humiliated by her husband and his mistress and lived in an age of treachery and political intrigue where assignation was a very real threat.
Kalogridis presents a Catherine, or Caterina, who loves her husband and children and is determined to protect her family and her sons' birthrights no matter the consequences. To Catherine, the end always justifies the means. To the casual reader, the events of history seem to be well-researched. Still, I was bored by the narrative, at times. The story didn't draw me in. I much preferred the more melodramatic potboilers that Jean Plaidy wrote about Catherine decades ago which I remember as being a lot more lively.
Book Summary
From Jeanne Kalogridis, the bestselling author of I, Mona Lisa and The Borgia Bride, comes a new novel that tells the passionate story of a queen who loved not wisely . . . but all too well.
Confidante of Nostradamus, scheming mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, and architect of the bloody St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, Catherine de Medici is one of the most maligned monarchs in history. In her latest historical fiction, Jeanne Kalogridis tells Catherine’s story—that of a tender young girl, destined to be a pawn in Machiavellian games.
Born into one of Florence’s most powerful families, Catherine was soon left a fabulously rich heiress by the early deaths of her parents. Violent conflict rent the city state and she found herself imprisoned and threatened by her family’s enemies before finally being released and married off to the handsome Prince Henry of France.
Overshadowed by her husband’s mistress, the gorgeous, conniving Diane de Poitiers, and unable to bear children, Catherine resorted to the dark arts of sorcery to win Henry’s love and enhance her fertility—for which she would pay a price. Against the lavish and decadent backdrop of the French court, and Catherine’s blood-soaked visions of the future, Kalogridis reveals the great love and desire Catherine bore for her husband, Henry, and her stark determination to keep her sons on the throne.
St. Martin's Press
August 1, 2009
On Sale: July 21, 2009
Featuring:
480 pages
ISBN: 0312368437
EAN: 9780312368432
Hardcover