Katherine

A Novel

De: Anya Seton

Narrado por: Lorna Bennett

"Exhilarating, exuberant, and rich," Katherine is an epic novel of a love affair that changed history—that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family (Austin Chronicle).

Set in the vibrant fourteenth century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets—Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II—who rule despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already-married Katherine. Their affair persists through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption.

Anya Seton's vivid rendering of the lives of the Duke and Duchess of Lancaster makes Katherine an unmistakable classic.

“An inspiration and the benchmark by which I judge historical novels.”—Alison Weir

©2000 Anya Seton (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

Amazing

Such an amazing book. I hated for it to end. The story is so beautiful and epic and Katherine had such an amazing life.

Transported back to Chaucer’s England

Wonderful finely wrought characters in a tale of enduring love and a woman’s incredible capacity to survive the fickle winds of fate

A great love story, among such hard times.

This is one of my favorite books. I’ve read many history books of this era & enjoy the historical fiction novels. IMO, this is the best historical love story of the time. It was a joy listening to it. This true story, so well researched & written, is such a marvelous example of love, fate & genetics. I have no doubt I will listen to this audio book again & again! If you are interested in this English history yime period, this read is a must.

Remarkable story

I fell in love with the characters. I never lost interest as the story moved along.

Lovely surprise

I often purchase slower, historical fiction books to fall asleep to at night. This one slowly sucked me in until I was so invested in characters and stories, that I had to stop listening to at night because I didn’t want to miss anything. Beautiful writing and character development, and wonderful performance from the narrator.

Timelessly fabulous story but narrator sub-optimal

Seton’s “Katherine” is comparable to Josephine Tey’s “Daughter of Time.” These two books have been the standards of biography (in Katherine’s case) and trial of Richard III (in Tey’s case).

First, the book: I must have read it about 15 times, the first when it was assigned in high school and the most recent by listening to this audiobook. Seton did painstaking research, made pilgrimage to Kettlethorpe and other places associated with John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford, and gathered all she could from scanty records, biased chroniclers, historical events, household accounts, etc. Then, to fill in the gaps, she invented dialogue, made some shrewd guesses and speculations that might have been possible, threw Julian of Norwich into the mix, and wrote a convincing historical fiction.

The result is three dimensional. Katherine steps out of history and stands before us, fully cognizant, a beauty, devout, passionate, deeply attached to her children, kind and benevolent, ancestress of all the kings and queens who followed Henry IV.

John of Gaunt (“do you think of an emaciated grandee?” quipped Sellar and Yeatman in their famous spoof) is nothing like the bitter old man Shakespeare brings us in “Richard II.” He is strong and passionate and ambitious.

Alison Weir wrote her own story of Katherine; it is not fiction, but it is not better than Seton’s.

THE NARRATOR: isn’t very good. She is flat. Her male voice (which is the same voice for each man) is a hoarse cranky-sounding growl. No variation. Her “Katherine” voice is….ok. She gives Hawise a Cockney accent, a little too modern for those times, but kind of interesting because Hawise was, as Seton wrote her anyway, a Londoner.

The book is 15 stars out of 5. The narrator gets it right 1/5 to 2/5 of the time.

Interesting history

I knew nothing of Katherine, so I'm glad I read this one. It tended to get bogged down in detail and it was hard to stick with it, I had to repeat some chapters just to keep the characters straight Narration was great.

The story is fantastic and the writing did justice to this epic love

I am a lover of historical fiction, but it is often hard to find beautiful and good writing to accompany it! This book sure hit the mark, excellent story and fabulous storytelling!

Great writing and character development

I’m looking forward to more of Seton’s books. Very entertaining to listen to while doing chores and driving

History brought to life through the story of Katherine and John

Wonderful weaving of historical events into the love story of the private life of John and Katherine and their profound effect on English history.