None of these concerns held true in the final product, in my view. Seton also worried her prose was insufficiently polished and that her adherence to historical fact made her story less dramatic than it could have been.

MacKethan's recent biography of the author, Anya Seton: A Writing Life (Chicago Review Press, 2020), and avidly read the excerpts from Seton's personal journals at the time, including her words: 'There's no suspense, how can there be when the genealogical table shows Katherine gets her duke in the end.' After finishing Katherine, I flipped through Lucinda H. In the case of Katherine, its presence at the very beginning means that a good part of the storyline is given away ahead of time, a fact which concerned Seton. Novels with genealogical charts have always interested me, since they reveal a story in themselves. Sadly, this venerable publishing name will soon cease to exist for fiction. I was especially pleased to see that the same family tree from my 1950s-era paperback was reproduced in the Kindle edition, which was published by Seton's original publisher, Houghton Mifflin (now also Harcourt). Multiple scenes and specific lines have stuck with me. Their numerous royal descendants include the Tudors, Stuarts, and current members of Britain's royal family.

Some aspects of Katherine have remained with me all this time, in particular the emotional impact of the unlikely-but-true love story between Katherine Swynford, born a herald's daughter in Picardy, and John of Gaunt, third son of England's Edward III. (Though I had skimmed it, back in 2004, in order to include it in Historical Fiction: A Guide to the Genre.) So the timing worked all around to dive back into this medieval epic, which had been a favorite read long ago, and which I hadn't read in full since writing about it for a high school book report. I had just purchased a Kindle copy of Anya Seton's Katherine after seeing it on BookBub, figuring it would be easier to read than the small-print paperback I'd bought at a used bookstore as a teenager. This past week, I found myself in the rare situation of having no pressing review deadlines.

Fidelity to the Truth in Biographical Fiction, an.

Eternal by Lisa Scottoline, her first historical n.

When the Past Begins To Sing, an essay by Lee Zach.Women from Greek mythology have their say in these.Giveaway winners, and other historical fiction news.It Started with a Druid and a Nun Having a Convers.Rereading Anya Seton's Katherine after 35 years.The Women of Chateau Lafayette by Stephanie Dray.

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