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The Last Wife of Henry VIII: A Novel
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Product Description
Author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
Courageous, attractive, romantic, intelligent, Catherine Parr became the sixth wife of Henry VIII. Her story, as Carolly Erickson re-creates it, is page-turning drama: from the splendors of the Field of the Cloth of Gold to the gory last years of the outsize King Henry, when heads rolled and England trembled, Catherine bestrode her destiny and survived to marry her true love.
Catherine Parr attracted the king’s lust and, though much in love with the handsome Thomas Seymour, was thrown into the intrigue-filled snake pit of the royal court. While victims of the king’s wrath suffered torture and execution, Catherine persevered—until, at last, she came within the orbit of the royal fury. King Henry toyed with her, first ordering her arrested, then granting her clemency. She managed to evade execution, but she knew that the king had his wandering eye fixed on wife number seven.
She was spared by his death and married the attractive but dangerously unbalanced Seymour. Her triumph was shadowed by rivalry with the young Princess Elizabeth, whose lands and influence the lecherous Seymour coveted. Catherine won the contest, but at great cost.
In The Last Wife of Henry VIII, critically acclaimed author Carolly Erickson brings this dramatic story of survival and redemption to life.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #514486 in Books
- Published on: 2006-10-03
- Released on: 2006-10-03
- Original language: English
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Erickson, known best for her lively and popular histories (nearly 20 of them, including The Girl from Botany Bay and Bonnie Prince Charlie) engages with this fictionalized, first-person life of Catherine Parr, who actually survived marriage to the dangerous and mercurial Henry Tudor (famously, of the six wives), and who is arguably his most interesting bride (not least because she had four husbands). Cultured, well-educated and beautiful, "Cat" catches Henry's eye as a young girl and variously benefits and suffers from his favor all her life. Often married to others when Henry is single, she is both attracted to and repelled by him, but understands him, she feels, better than most. The factional court tightrope Catherine walks is familiar, as is the religious one; her observations cast Princess Elizabeth (soon to be Elizabeth I) and Baron Thomas Seymour (a husband of Catherine's who wanted to marry Elizabeth) in a less-than-positive light, and the Church of England priests come off as corrupt as the Catholics they replaced. Catherine surprises and delights as her own woman, one who, in the end, gets everything she wants. (Oct.)
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From AudioFile
Catherine Parr was a young child when she met the dashing, handsome King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon, the queen for whom she was named. Throughout her life, Henry was a friend, an enemy, a confidant, an admirer, a supporter, and finally her husband. From Catherine's point of view, we see Henry's marriages, a large part of Tudor history, and her own life. Terry Donnelly keeps all this straight and the story flowing in an elegant reading that also expresses Catherine's noble background. As Donnelly takes us through each phase of Cat's life, her precise and crisp reading accents Cat's intelligent thoughtfulness. Her voice rises strongly at points to show Catherine's more passionate side. S.W. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
Review
Praise for The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette
“I read The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette in two days, and when I finished it, I reread the final pages, as hungry for more as a child scraping the last crumbs of chocolate cake off her plate with her fingers. I thrilled to Marie Antoinette’s every incarnation.…A very human and multi-textured portrait of a queen who all too often has been reduced to a historical one-liner.” ---Judith Warner, The New York Times Book Review
“[Marie Antoinette] regains her historical reputation in this historical novel. . . . The glittering but corrupt French court, the growing turmoil, the brutal poverty, the intrigues are all illuminated here.” ---Deirdre Donahue, USA Today
“Writers of historical fiction must tread a fine line between loving one’s protagonists while telling the truth about them. Carolly Erickson has executed this balancing act with the same scorching wit and great-heartedness that has always illuminated her biographies.” ---Robin Maxwell, author of The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn and To the Tower
“Carolly Erickson turns cold fact to hot fiction in her first historical novel. The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette lets a much-maligned woman speak for herself---in exquisitely precise prose that illuminates her growth from innocent princess to unloved wife to doomed queen. Erickson...reveals the very human truth behind history’s mask.” ---India Edghill, author of Queenmaker and Wisdom’s Daughter
