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A review by ablotial
Katherine by Anya Seton
4.0
This was a very lovely historical novel about some major players in the history of England. I'm not much of a history buff, so while I have heard of "The Plantagenets", "The Lancasters", and "The War of the Roses" (which is a bit later, but very much related it turns out) I hadn't heard of the individual players by name. I feel now as if I have a pretty good understanding of the major players and events of this time period, and that the story was told in such a way that it will stick with me rather than going in one ear and out the other as boring historical texts seem to do. I just have to try to keep in mind that, while the book is about real people, not everything happened exactly the way the author has written it here.
The story of Katherine's rise from a dower-less orphan convent girl to the Duchess of Lancaster is a good one -- I'd hesitate to call it "inspiring" since it wasn't really through any effort on her part -- but she did play the part well. And the common folk of the day found it heartening that one of their own could be raised to such a position, regardless of the reason. At least in this telling of the story, Katherine kept her head about her even after her elevation and didn't act as if she were above the common folk in any way. I am unsure if Katherine really freed her serfs -- she may have been ahead of her time in this regard, but my guess is it was the author's prerogative at work --
I enjoyed the forward in this edition that discussed the differences between historical fiction and historical romance. Many people conflate the two genres. While there certainly was a romantic aspect to this novel, it was much more focused on the history and the romantic scenes were far from erotic. Much of these scenes were glossed over with a word.
Now that the book is over, I find that I sort of miss the characters. The sign of a great novel!
The story of Katherine's rise from a dower-less orphan convent girl to the Duchess of Lancaster is a good one -- I'd hesitate to call it "inspiring" since it wasn't really through any effort on her part -- but she did play the part well. And the common folk of the day found it heartening that one of their own could be raised to such a position, regardless of the reason. At least in this telling of the story, Katherine kept her head about her even after her elevation and didn't act as if she were above the common folk in any way. I am unsure if Katherine really freed her serfs -- she may have been ahead of her time in this regard, but my guess is it was the author's prerogative at work --
I enjoyed the forward in this edition that discussed the differences between historical fiction and historical romance. Many people conflate the two genres. While there certainly was a romantic aspect to this novel, it was much more focused on the history and the romantic scenes were far from erotic. Much of these scenes were glossed over with a word.
Now that the book is over, I find that I sort of miss the characters. The sign of a great novel!