Classics Club – Page 16 – What Cathy Read Next…

About the Book

Katherine comes to the court of Edward III at the age of fifteen. The naïve convent-educated orphan of a penniless knight is dazzled by the jousts and the entertainments of court.

Nevertheless, Katherine is beautiful, and she turns the head of the King’s favourite son, John of Gaunt. But he is married, and she is soon to be betrothed.

A few years later their paths cross again and this time their passion for each other cannot be denied or suppressed. Katherine becomes the prince’s mistress, and discovers an extraordinary world of power, pleasure and passion.

Format: ebook (516 pages) Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication date: 6th March 2014 [1954] Genre: Historical Fiction, Romance

Find Katherine on Goodreads

Purchase links*
Amazon.co.uk| Hive (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

My Review

Katherine was the book from my Classics Club listpicked for me to read in the latest Classics Club Spin. And how glad I am it was selected because at 500 pages I’d been putting off reading it but, once I started the book, I became so caught up in the story that the pages flew by.

A fictionalized account of the relationship between Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, the book is wonderfully romantic without being slushy or sentimental and full of period atmosphere. The intimate portrait of their love affair which spanned decades is set against the backdrop of wider historical events, such as the Peasants’ Revolt. However, the historical detail never overwhelms the personal story.

The book is rich in descriptive detail – of food, clothing, furnishings, daily life – and has an interesting cast of secondary characters such as Geoffrey Chaucer. I also liked the way the closing scenes of the book contrast Katherine’s view of her newly elevated position with her first impressions of the Plantagenet court as a young girl.

No doubt it can be argued that Katherine is an overly romanticized account of a woman about whom relatively little is actually known. However, as a historical romance it worked for me and I thank the spin gods for choosing this book for me to read.

In three words: Romantic, immersive, engaging

Try something similar: The Scandalous Duchess by Anne O’Brien

Follow my blog via Bloglovin

About the Author

Anya Seton was born in New York City and grew up on her father`s large estate in Cos Cob and Greenwich, Connecticut, where visiting Indians taught her Indian dancing and woodcraft. One Sioux chief called her Anutika, which means ‘cloud grey eyes’, a name which the family shortened to Anya. She was educated by governesses and then travelled abroad, first to England, then to France where she hoped to become a doctor. She studied for a while at the Hotel Dieu hospital in Paris before marrying at eighteen and having three children.

She began writing in 1938 with a short story sold to a newspaper syndicate and the first of her ten novels was published in 1941. Her other novels include Green Darkness, The Winthrop Woman and Avalon. She died in 1990.

The Classics Club How time flies because it’s time for another Classics Club spin. I definitely need a prompt to read a book off my list. In fact, my spin list below could pretty much be a copy of my list from the previous spin…maybe even the one before that if I’m honest.

For those unfamiliar with how the spin works, here are the step-by-step instructions:

At your blog, before Sunday 22nd December 2019, create a post that lists twenty books of your choice that remain “to be read” on your Classics Club list. This is your Spin List. See mine below.
You have to read one of these twenty books by the end of the spin period.
On 22nd December the folks at The Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The challenge is to read whatever book falls under that number on your Spin List by 31st January 2020. Your first New Year resolution achieved, perhaps?