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Summary: I love this book
Review: I ran across this book in a Goodwill book sale years ago and having read one other book by Anya Seton, decided to shell out the 50 cents they were asking. And I found one of my favorite books of all time. I'm so pleased that it's back in print.
I found the book shortly after having worked on a community theatre production of The Lion in Winter. I was so fascinated by the fictional accounts of the families of these two Plantagenet kings - Henry II and Edward III - that I wanted to learn more and find out how much of both stories were true. That led to a long and very interesting private study of English history, which I have enjoyed tremendously.
I think well-researched, well-written historical fiction can be a great introduction to a time and place and can give you a sense of what it may have been like to live in that time. Good historical fiction (and Seton was the best in the field in my opinion), followed by readings in books of history - academic or popular - has helped me keep various periods solidly in place in my memory. Finding a character you knew from a novel in a work of history can help fix the time and place in your mind. Katherine Swynford, by the way, turns up frequently in histories such as Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror", which is about the Hundred Years' War, in Alison Weir's "The Wars of the Roses", in which the question of the succession to the English throne involves her descendants, and in a biography I read recently of Chaucer, in which she appeared as his sister in law.
If you have read and enjoyed Katherine, let me also recommend Devil Water, The Winthrop Woman, Avalon, and Green Darkness. I've read other novels by Seton, but these five are my favorites.
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Summary: Katherine
Review: I read this book in the late '50s. I remember it as one of the best books I ever read and was so sad when the book was finished. I have always recommended it to my friends even though it was a difficult book to find. Now that it has been re-released I look forward to reading it again. The details of living in those days was detailed and as accurate as I have ever read. I lived with Katherine all of the days I was reading about her life. It is a wonderful book.
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Summary: So romantic, it makes you fall in love....
Review: I was delighted with this book and found it difficult to put down. I fell in love with Katherine and John and despaired with them. This book made me thirst to know more about English royalty and the history of the era.
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Summary: Great love story?
Review: I was supposed to love this book.
It was recommended to me over and over, based on the sort of books I usually like. And I did like Katherine--but after being unable to find it for several years, then finally seeing it back in print and grabbing it up on the spot--it didn't live up to my anticipation.
It's a good story--the story of the relationship between John of Gaunt, blood kin to countless kings but never king himself, and his mistress, Katherine Swynford, whom he married after his two royal wives passed away. Seton fills her book with interesting characters and real-life historical detail.
It's the love story that didn't do it for me. Yes, John of Gaunt was probably an arrogant jerk in real life. Supposedly, Seton actually made him less of a jerk than history would indicate--but by gods, if anyone ever proposed to me with the line he used to Katherine, I'd slap him. Ugh. This is a good historical novel, yes, but I have trouble thinking it's very romantic. I just don't much like John, I guess. Katherine was much better, starting out as a wide-eyed innocent and growing into a competent woman along the way.
I also thought the book was preachy at times in its religious aspects.
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Summary: Katherine by Anya Seton
Review: I woud like to let you all know that this book was not written by Philippa gregory but by Any Seton. I read this book more than 30 years ago with all the other books of Anya Seton. this one is my favorite. It is a beautiful love story at the same time the description of the period and the historical research is very close to accuracy.
I hope you will reset the title and the Author, Ms gregory has most probably written a preface to this book.
thank you for your attention in this matter.
Icihiboo
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Summary: "Katherine" Set the Standard for Many Readers
Review: If you talk to someone who enjoys historical fiction, it is more than likely that they have read at least one book by Anya Seton. It seems to be a tossup as to whether "Katherine" or "Green Darkness" is mentioned as their favorite of her works. It is difficult to believe that "Katherine" is the only one of her works currently in print. This wonderful new edition, reissed by Chicago Review Press in 2004, is hopefully part of an effort to reissue some of the author's other works.What sets "Katherine" above other historical novels and especially above historical romances? Like the best historical novels, "Katherine" is specific to its time period, in this case 14th century England. It is the story of real people, John of Gaunt and his mistress, and, later, third wife Katherine Swynford. The charcters are congruent with their time period: Katherine is not a 20th-century politically correct feminist decked out in a 14th century gown. While we will never know if she experienced the thoughts and emotions ascribed to her by Ms Seton, they were correct for the time period and give the novel that feeling of reality. John and Katherine's story has been outlined in other reviews on this page, so I do not feel it is necessary to rehash the plot. However, one of Ms Seton's gifts as a writer is her ability to create believable characters, and this work has them in abundance: Katherine's sister Philippa, married to Geoffrey Chaucer, is a busybody who is human enough to feel pangs of envy when she looks at her beautiful sister; Chaucer and John of Gaunt both find Katherine's earthy beauty disturbing when they compare her to John's remote and lovely first wife, Blanche, whom Chaucer worships from afar; and the most tragic figure of the story, Hugh Swynford, Katherine's first husband, who loves her from the first time he sees her, and who can barely gain her attention, even after they are married. Katherine's eventual guilt over Hugh's death, & her treatment of him when he was alive, is heart wrenching. When you open this book you leave the 21st century and its problems behind, and enter the world of 14th century: it is a world full of superstition,"magic," sudden death by the Black Plague, and constant danger. It will literally come alive for you, and you may have a hard time coming back to the reality of an equally dangerous modern world. It is worth the trip!
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Summary: A great re-release!
Review: My grandmother recommended this book to me about 15 years ago and I loved it then. A few years back I purchased a copy from a rare book seller since it was not a popular mainstream book. I am so glad to see it re-released in paperback so others can enjoy it as much as my grandmother and I have. A definite must for anyone who has enjoyed Philippa Gregory and the lives of the Tudors.
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Summary: HEATHER BURKE
Review: My parents and I have loved this book since the 50's. My middle name if Kathryn because of this book. It is perhaps not the most accurate historically, but it is not inaccurate enough to spoil the 'read'. It was one of the first historical novels I read, in Jr High, and helped spark a love of the era and of English history in general. I have re-read this book more than just about any others.
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Summary: Medieval History brought vividly to life
Review: One April morning of 1366, a young girl rides to join her sister at court in Windsor. The young girl was Katherine. There, a boorish knigh, Sir Hugh falls madly in love with her, but Katherine isn't interested. She is persuaded to marry him for her own security, but she has no love for him, nor even any affection. Katherine has also caught the eye of the King's third son, John of Gaunt, the Duke of Lancaster. Something in the handsome duke's kiss on her wedding day, arouses in Katherine feelings she had never known and she seeks out the duke at every opportunity. In the laws of God and man, their love is forbidden, but the seed of passion has been sown which will change the course of English history... This was a brilliant book, difficult to put down. All the history is there, but told through the eyes of the characters, making it that much more real. There's even a cameo appeareance by Goeffrey Chaucer! (Who wrote the Canterbury Tales.) One to re-read again. Reviewed by Annette Gisby, author of Silent Screams and Shadows of the Rose.
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Summary: A wonderful book
Review: This is one of my all-time favorite books. The characters are complex and multi-dimensional. I experienced every emotion while reading it.
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