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Title details for Young and Damned and Fair by Gareth Russell - Available

Young and Damned and Fair

The Life of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife of King Henry VIII

by Gareth Russell
Jenny Funnell
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this biography of Henry VIII's fifth wife, Catherine Howard, is "a stunning achievement" (The Sunday Times, London), and "a masterly work of Tudor history that is engrossing, sympathetic, suspenseful, and illuminating" (Charlotte Gordon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography).
On the morning of July 28, 1540, a teenager named Catherine Howard began her reign as queen of an England simmering with rebellion and terrifying uncertainty. Sixteen months later, she would follow her cousin Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, having been convicted of adultery and high treason.

The broad outlines of Catherine's career might be familiar, but her story up until now has been incomplete. Unlike previous biographies, which portray her as a naïve victim of an ambitious family, Gareth Russell's "excellent account puts the oft-ignored Catherine in her proper historical context" (Daily Mail, London) and sheds new light on her rise and downfall by showing her in her context, a milieu that includes the aristocrats and, most critically, the servants who surrounded her and who, in the end, conspired against her. By illuminating Catherine's entwined upstairs/downstairs world as well as societal tensions beyond the palace walls, Russell offers a fascinating portrayal of court life in the sixteenth century and a fresh analysis of the forces beyond Catherine's control that led to her execution.

Including a forgotten text of Catherine's confession in her own words, color illustrations, family tree, map, and extensive notes, Young and Damned and Fair is "a gripping account of a young woman's future destroyed by forces beyond her control...an important and timely book" (Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire). This account changes our understanding of one of history's most famous women while telling the compelling and very human story of complex individuals attempting to survive in a dangerous age.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 4, 2017

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781508227380
      • File size: 459752 KB
      • Duration: 15:57:48

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Surprising revelations abound in this audio biography of Catherine Howard, the fifth wife of Henry VIII, including a recently discovered confession of her offenses in her own words. Narrator Jenny Funnell does a good job of creating sixteenth-century English life for listeners so that they understand the life of women in this time period and, in particular, the life of a daughter of nobility. Funnell uses a sympathetic voice to portray Catherine as a real person who was beautiful but misguided by the people she trusted. Sixteen months after becoming queen she would be charged with adultery and high treason, and led to the executioner's block. Overall, this is a good listening experience for Tudor enthusiasts. E.E.S. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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