Mariner Books Katherine

I am obsessed with this book! It is one of the best novels that I have read in many, many years and I cannot get KAtherine and her cohorts out of my mind. I am an avid reader, I read all the time, and have since I was a child; I am now an old woman, a great grandmother, so I have read a lot of books! It is not the first novel that I have read that was written by Anya Seton, and I have loved her other books, also. "Green Darkness" is as good as "Katherine" but is not based on real people that can be traced back to the English Royal family of modern day, all the characters in "Green Darkness" are fictional, whereas they are/were real people that Anya wrote about in "Katherine." It is a fascinating story, and tells you better than anything that I have ever read that the royal family came from very ordinary human beings, just like the rest of us commom folks. Though they were royals, their morals were not any better than the present lot of royalty as we know it today. I mean, how can Charles have high morals and treat Diana like he did, sneaking around with Camilla Parker Bowles? Both were married to other people at the time and blatantly commited adultery! There was also gallantry and great bravery in the ranks of the royals then, as now. Prince Harry has proven that not all royals are pampered namby-pambys. But the story of Katherine Swynford and John o' Gault is a real love story, between two honorable human beings. It is so interesting to me that their children are the parents and grandparents, etc., in other words, the ancestors of the ruling family that is still in power over the British empire today. Also interesting is the fact that a lot of their ancestors were illegitimate, and sprang from Katherine and John. When you read this book, you are going to be spending a lot of time on the Internet researching the characters, and you will find that Ms. Seton is fairly accurate on all of her facts. Historically speaking, it is like an encyclopedia on life in the 14th Century. Though I finished reding the book a few weeks ago, I am still on the Internet looking up different characters from the story and am learning more details about all of them. Almost every character in the book can be authenticated through Google. A few characteristics have been changed but does not effect the realism of the book. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history, but even if you are not all that intent on finding out about life in Mediaeval England, it is still a great and wonderful love story. And while enjoying the love story, you can learn a small bit of history as well.

Dieser erstmals 1954 erschienene Roman der verstorbenen Schriftstellerin Anya (eigentlich Ann) Seton (1904 - 1990) wird manchmal als "classic romance novel" deklariert. Wenngleich die historisch verbürgte Liebesgeschichte zwischen John of Gaunt und Katherine Swynford darin die Hauptthematik darstellt, so handelt es sich bei diesem Roman keinesfalls um ein Buch, das man der Kategorie "Love and Romance" oder gar den sogenannten "Nackenbeißern" zuordnen darf. Vielmehr erzählt dieser ausgezeichnet recherchierte historische (fast schon biographische) Roman nicht nur aus dem Leben der Katherine Swynford, sondern nimmt ausführlich Bezug auf die wichtigsten Umstände und Entwicklungen des 14.Jahrhunderts: nachdem die Population durch die Pest drastisch reduziert worden war, waren Arbeitskräfte knapp geworden und die unfreien Bauern versuchten, sich diesen Umstand zunutze zu machen und mehr Rechte einzufordern. Katherine Swynford erlebte die zunehmende Missstimmung und die Rebellion der Bauern während der "Peasants'revolt" hautnah mit, zunächst als Gutsherrin auf Kettlethorpe,dem Besitz ihres Mannes, später als langjährige Geliebte (schließlich 3.Ehefrau) und Vertraute des Duke of Lancaster. Katherines Schwester Philippa war mit keinem Geringeren als Geoffrey Chaucer verheiratet. Die "persönliche" Begegnung mit Chaucer, den ich vorher eigentlich nur durch die Lektüreliste von der Uni kannte, war für mich ausgesprochen interessant und informativ. Informativ war außerdem das Vokabular des Romans, in dem einige mittelalterliche Ausdrücke vorkommen, um die ich meinen englischen Wortschatz bereichern konnte. Soweit ich weiß, wurde "Katherine" Anfang der Sechziger Jahre ins Deutsche übersetzt, neuere Übersetzungen scheint es nicht zu geben. Für Leser, die bei der Lektüre englischer Romane keine nennenswerten Schwierigkeiten haben, möchte ich das Buch unbedingt empfehlen: es ist gründlich recherchiert, äußerst informativ und sehr flüssig und angenehm zu lesen.

I loved this book, because it explained the feeling of the people involved in it, how they could have experienced the history that it portrayed. I was fasinated, because this Katherine is one of my ancestors, and I loved to find out more about my ancestors. Anyone who loves history, and many people who are descendants will be very pleased to read about this ancestor who has produced many many descendants. It is written in a very captivating way, you don't want to put the book down. I believe any book that Philippa Gregory will be loved by anyone who is interested in English history come to life.

１４世紀の英国の実話を基にしたラブロマンスです。フランスで両親をペストの為に失い、姉とともに英国に連れてこられ、時の女王の慈悲により、片田舎の修道院に預けられていたKatherineが、女王の側に仕える姉のPhillippaと共に王宮で暮らすところから幕が開けます。Katherineはそこで、国王エドワード３世の息子John of Gauｎｔと出会い、二人は互いに引かれあう何かを感じるのですが、Katherineは彼女を盲目的に慕う無骨な騎士との結婚を余儀なくされ、Johnにも財知美貌ともに優れた妻もおり、いったんは離ればなれに。しかし・・・と、起伏に富んだストーリー展開で、一体二人はどうなるのかと、どきどきしながら読まされます。 物語はその頃の華やかな宮廷生活とそれとは対照的な貧しい庶民の暮らし、風物を織りまぜつつ進行します。歴史背景がわかっていればもちろん尚いいのでしょうが、わからなくても面白さには変わりはありません。 普通の恋愛小説に飽きた方には是非おすすめの一冊です。

Katherine is widely regarded as Anya Seton's finest book, and is still a popular classic in its genre over 50 years after it was first published. There are several reasons why this book has endured and is still so well-loved by so many. First, in Katherine Anya Seton completely immerses the reader in 14th century England. This is an era that, 600 years later, we tend to view through a soft-focus lens, remembering it as a romantic and chivalric period of castles, knights, courtly manners and beautiful and elaborate clothing. However, Seton's writing removes the rosy glow and depicts the late 1300s in as realistic a way as possible for a 20th century writer; she reminds us that life in a castle was cold, damp, moldy, smelly (unwashed bodies and poor sanitation), and ridden with sickness, lice and fleas. And yet this time period is still compelling with its tournaments, courtly intrigue, and social structure so different from our own. It was a world so drastically different from what we know that we are still fascinated by it. Secondly, Katherine is a successful book because it is so full and satisfying; it is like eating a seven-course meal. When you are finished you feel that it is complete and nothing has been left out. Anya Seton found her niche in the writing world by focusing on real women who had actually lived, but who were (with the exception of Katherine Swynford) minor players never on the center stage of their society, and who had been forgotten over time by all but perhaps a few elite scholars. She took such characters, what few facts about them she could discover in her research, and, using her own fertile imagination, recreated their lives. Because her subjects were heretofore unknown to her readers, Seton was able to form their personalities and motives as she pleased and make them her own. She does this in spades with Katherine. As she says in her Author's Note at the beginning of the book, few documented facts exist about Katherine Swynford's life. Therefore, the majority of this 500-page book (and very small print at that) is the result of Seton's own vivid and gifted imagination. This is really less a love story about John of Gaunt and Katherine Swynford than it is a life story of Katherine herself, complete with a large cast of major and minor players. The result is a story that is full, detailed and multi-textured, just as Katherine's life probably actually was. Seton vividly portrays her characters and develops their personalities and motivations in ways that are completely credible to the reader. Having read all of Anya Seton's books, I can say that they are never contrived; never do you feel that she is forcing the plot to go in the direction she wishes it to. Always the direction of the story seems to emerge from the characters themselves and their decisions; such is the ability of a gifted writer. The only drawback that I could find in this book, and the reason I am giving it 4 stars instead of 5, is that at times the pace drags. There were several places where I found myself thumbing ahead (although I would always go back to where I was and keep reading until it got more interesting!) If you like modern-style romances with their graphic and titillating love scenes, then you won't like Katherine or any other older romance book for that matter. This is an old-style romance (which is the best kind in my opinion) where the intimacy is only alluded to. But if you want to be transported back to the 14th century and read about a real-life woman who was fascinating in her ability to capture and hold the love of the wealthiest and most powerful man in England at the time, then this is it. I was a little sad to see the book end, I wasn't quite ready to return to the 21st century. :) This is one I will doubtless read again someday. Enjoy.