Katherine by the American author Anya Seton was first published in 1954. I’ve been meaning to get around to reading it for years, so I put it on my new third Classics Club list, just to remind me to get on with it. I really enjoyed it.
Katherine is written in six parts which range from 1366 to 1396. At the beginning Katherine is a young girl, leaving the very secluded Sheppey priory that she has grown up in for the hurly burly of Windsor. It’s a long journey and a real eye-opener fot the young girl. It was the Queen who had ordered that Katherine be brought to court, and it’s really only then that Katherine realises that she’s attractive with her long auburn hair. When she’s suffering from the unwanted attention of a man that Katherine first meets, the Duke of Lancaster/John of Gaunt, he saves her from Hugh Swynford, the man that she eventually marries for some sort of security. But it’s the Duke that she’s going to be involved with for most of her life.
This is such an entertaining and painless way of learning about the history of the period, Anya Seton seems really to have done her research into the period, a time of upheaval and misery for the ordinary people, most of whom were serfs, so were not free to move away if they wanted to as the landowner owned them. French wars, plague, rioting, Lollards, Geoffrey Chaucer and all sorts come into the tale, including quite a lot of the old religion as you would expect. But at the heart of it is a three way marriage and I couldn’t help thinking about the Charles/Diana/Camilla episode which was a very similar situation.
Anya Seton was steeped in English history it would seem and was obvioulsy an Anglophile, but there was one very jarring Americanism in that she uses the phrase ‘New Year’s’ It’s a US expression and I always want to say – New Year’s what?! I must say that it drives me nuts so it really jumped out at me. It would never have been used in 14th century England.
Apart from this one I’ve only read her Green Darkness. Would anyone recommend any others by Seton?
I read this years ago and loved it, so I’m pleased to hear you enjoyed it too! I’ve read quite a few of Anya Seton’s other books and can recommend Devil Water, about an English Jacobite, the Earl of Derwentwater, and her gothic novel Dragonwyck. I’ve also read Avalon and The Winthrop Woman, but can’t remember much about them now.
This book sounds like a great read, and sometimes I think I’ve learned more history from historical fiction than through more formal means of learning. Until you pointed it out, I never realized that what we Americans commonly call “New Year’s” is really an unfinished phrase. Funny. Now, I’ll probably always think of you when I hear or say it myself!
Paula,
I so agree with you, as long as the author is keen on doing the research you can learn a lot through fiction.
LOL – as they say! I don’t know if it’s a good or bad thing you’ll be thinking of me around ‘New Year’s’!
I have not read anything by Anya Seton but the format of this story sounds very intriguing, the division into six parts which range from 1366 to 1396. There is so much about English history I don’t know. I will have to look into her other books too.
tracybham,
There is so much English/British history that so many people in the UK find confusing. I’m often amazed at the lack of knowledge of people who see themselves as well-informed about such things. I suppose there is a lot to our history compared with the US – just because it is so long.
I love this book and found it so romantic when I first read it in junior high. Of course, the bit where she is stuck on Hugh’s depressing estate are bleak. The copy I got from my school library was a bit lurid and I stuck it under my pillow – not a good hiding place! When I got home from school the next day, my mother was sitting on my bed reading and told me it was her favorite book the year she finished high school. It was serialized in the Ladies Home Journal magazine and she missed a pivotal issue so had to wait until it came out in print several months later!
There is a recent Allison Weir book about her that I have not read. I do plan to go to Lincoln on my next trip to visit her grave.
Constance,
That must have been so frustrating for your mother! We did go to Lincoln about ten years ago but the weather was so bad we didn’t stay there long and didn’t go into the cathedral – we were already soaking wet. Jack took some photos though which you can see here. I’ve enjoyed some books by Alison Weir.
Hi Katrina,
I have such fond memories of this novel. I was swept away when I read it as a 16-year-old one summer on Cape Cod, while babysitting for a family of children. You know, I must read it again, and compare my impressions fifty-two years later. Oh, god, to think that all that time has passed.
I have read other Seton novels, many in recent years, but none for me can compare with Katherine.
Wishing you the best!
Judith,
It’s lovely to hear from you. I suspect that 16 is just about the perfect age to read this one so I’m somewhat behind the times – but still enjoyed it, although the writing does feel a wee bit dated at times.
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