Rating: 
Summary: A JEWELL I CHERISH
Review: I first read this book over twenty years ago.It is in a class by itself. Anya Seton has created a masterpiece that has a certain golden glow about it that is hard to put into words.if you read these reviews you can see that this is a work that has really influenced people's lives.How I have dreamed about John of Gaunt! I have searched high and low to find out more about him and Katherine.What a passion that lasted so long and through such amazing times to produce two great linesof kings and queens!This novel not only has unforgettable major characters, but even the minor ones were actual people. Who can forget Cob O' Fenton or Hawise, or the glory of the Avalon chamber and the Savoy? I wish I could hold just one rock from that palace, that I could stand where these people lived.Does anyone know of any other books about Katherine or John? I know they could'nt be as good, but I'm still dying for more.Read this book and you will discover a true jewell whose luster will never dim.This treasure should never be allowed to go out of print. Imagine the awesome movie it would make!
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: This was an incredible book. While it wasn't 100% historically accurate it was wonderful. As soon as I was done with it I rushed out and bought Green Darkness, also by this authour, and also a wonderful book. If you like authours like Sharon Penman and Jude Devaroux you will like her. This was not a bodice ripper.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressive but Surpassable
Review: I agree with the other reviewers that this book was held up by excellent research and a passionate writer. However, I think Seton's portrait of the middle ages seems to be more a fairy tale than a reality that might have existed. I still wonder why the the relationship between Katherine and John of Gaunt was so strong. I do not see why these lovers were so inseparable other than because Katherine was weak and John played the father figure who was missing in her childhood. I still recommend this book to lovers of historical fiction and admit it was an engaging read. My criticism, however, comes from the fact that I have started to read Sharon Kay Penman's "Here be Dragons" trilogy for the second time and it has put "Katherine" in a new light. This trilogy is truly a masterpiece because the characters and their relationships are so real and not so polished as Seton's. In Penman's works I'm reading about real people not lofty historical figures. It's easier to believe that Penman's middle ages are the real thing.
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Summary: This book truly brings "alive" Katherine Swynford.
Review: Written back in 1954, this historical novel is a gem. It goes to show that with a bit of digging into the past you can unearth some real treasures in more ways than one.This book tells the story of a woman who was born the daughter of a French herald, with no noticable prospects before her. Katherine de Roet is a little known (today) figure of English history, but she is still important. For without her long term liaison with John, Duke of Lancaster, much of English history (and it's royal family) as we know it today, would never have happened. The author has done a pile of original research for this novel (some of it is detailed at the beginning), and it pays off with a rich portrait of Katherine, her times and the people she lived with, through the ups and downs of her life. All said, this is a superior historical novel, that makes you wish you could find out *more* about the real (not just the novel version) Katherine Swynford.
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Summary: Even After 20+ Years!
Review: I'm still recommending this book after 20 someodd years. Every time I discuss Katherine I start spouting off historical facts and I NEVER remember historical names and places. The highest compliment I can pay this book is that I cried for two hours after finishing it just because it was so long ago and I wished they were still alive!
Rating:
Summary: Katherine
Review: This is one of the best historicals I've ever read. Impeccably researched with what is available on the history of Katherine Swynford, Ms Seton made the story incredibly believable. I read it originally more than 10 years ago and every few years do a re read. I agree with other reviewers that a re-issue of Anya Seton's novels is needed. I know I would buy a set!
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Summary: This book is for sharing; it crosses every generational gap.
Review: I am ordering a new copy for my teenage daughter; she and I have read my old copy into a coverless rag. This book truly brings history alive with characters that are multi-dimensional and descriptions of places and times that do not sweeten the difficulties of living in medieval times. The story is so well crafted it is easy to forget that these were once real people. Historical facts are woven effortlessly into the story and I still find new tidbits even after multiple readings. I too suggest this book to all reader friends, and it is a source of great pleasure to me that my daughter finds it as fascinating today as I did 30 years ago.
Rating:
Summary: A fine romance but so much more!
Review: I first found this book in the early sixties while wandering down the aisles of a furniture store, my favorite place at that time to look for out of print books. I read Katherine the first time for the story line then immediately reread it because I thought I misread or had read something into it that shouldn't have been there. On the second read, it was as if a blinding flash of light hit me; John of Gaunt was not the scheming, power hungry threat to the English throne as depicted by Shakespeare, et al. The third read made the amount of research by the author readily apparent. The economic repercussion of the Black Plague, the incessant wars, the woefully inadequate king whose overindulgence of favorites led to treasury deficits and the Peasants Revolt. The fourth read brought the total picture to light. John and Katherine were real. They lived, they loved, they made mistakes and yes, even their children did the same. I think it was the very idea that these people actually lived that sent me to the library for further research on this amazing couple and the time in which they lived. And what I found during this research sent me back again and again. All of those nice stories we find in our school text books, that fit nicely within specific timelines or those people who are characterized as being the best, brightest, most heroic, ad nauseaum, weren't true or at least not as true as set in type. A lot of it is, as Josephine Tey states in another book, "tony pandy". After reading the words of many of the other reviewers of this book, I was pleased note that many had chosen this book to augment the standardized history texts with this book. I've always thought there were better ways to teach history rather than use the standard text. Yes, you can read Katherine as a fine romance novel but it's really so much more; it's a textbook of events affecting the lives of fourteenth century English peoples.
Rating: 
Summary: Very disappointing
Review: I ordered Katherine because I absolutely loved Green Darkness by this author. I can only say that it reads very much like any other "romance" novel put out by the thousands on a daily basis.
Rating:
Summary: One of the all-time great historical novels
Review: When I was 13, I found "Katherine" in a box of books taken from my late grandmother's house. The back blurb looked sort of interesting, so I sat down, opened it up, and (according to my father) was not seen again for two days! I remember that the paperback had sort of a romance-novel type cover (red-haired heroine with maximum cleavage). It is anything but romance, although the love affair between Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt is a major part of the plot. Fourteenth-century England comes alive in the deft hands of Ms. Seton, complete with stenches and various religious superstitions, once again proving that history usually provides the best plots for novels! I've read about five copies to tatters and am working on number six. Not enough superlatives available to describe how good "Katherine" is--I envy those about to make the discovery . . .
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