Product Description

The author of the internationally acclaimed Josephine B. trilogy returns with another deeply enchanting historical novel, this one based on the life of an extraordinary horsewoman, Louise de la Vallière, the brave and spirited child of minor nobility who, against all odds, grows up to become one of the most mysterious consorts of France's King Louis XIV, the charismatic Sun King.

Set against the magnificent decadence of the 17th-century court of the Sun King, Mistress of the Sun begins when the eccentric young Louise falls in love with a wild white stallion and uses ancient magic to tame him. This one desperate action of youth shadows her throughout her life, changing it in ways she could never imagine.

Unmarriageable and too poor to join a convent, she enters the court of the Sun King as a maid of honour, where she captures - and then tragically loses - the King's heart. Mistress of the Sun illuminates, through the resurrection of a fascinating female figure from the dark corners of history, both the power of true love and the rash actions we take to capture and tame it.

Sandra Gulland's previous work brought Josephine Bonaparte magnificently to life in three immediately addictive bestselling novels. Beginning with The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B., Gulland established an entirely new gold standard for the art of historical fiction. Mistress of the Sun - a riveting love story with a captivating mystery at its centre - is a welcome reward for all those who have waited so patiently for its arrival.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42047 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-07
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .2 pounds
• Binding: Hardcover
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
As she did for Napoleon's wife (The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.), Gulland skillfully blends fact and fiction to imagine the life of Louise de la Vallière (1644–1710), mistress to Louis XIV, France's Sun King. Louise loses her father early and spends her childhood in a convent run by her aunt, Sister Angelique. When Louise's mother, Françoise, marries a marquis, she takes Louise home, where, by chance, she meets King Louis. As she secures a position at court about 100 pages in, the plot finally begins to bubble with intrigue: the king has married for political reasons, but, as a young and pious man, he has not kept a mistress before Louise. Their secret love eventually comes to light, but not without exacting a price. A supernatural element threaded throughout adds color to Gulland's vivid period imaginings. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Sandra Gulland was raised and educated in Berkeley, California, immigrating to Canada in 1970. She is the author of the Josephine B. trilogy, which has been published worldwide to great success. Gulland spent many years researching Mistress of the Sun, and in the interest of perfecting the book's rich details, she acquired a library of over 200 books on the Louis XIV period, rode horseback for a week in France's Loire Valley (45 km a day) and spent a silent stay in a convent.