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The Confessions of Catherine de Medici: A Novel, by C. W. Gortner
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BONUS: This edition contains a The Confessions of Catherine de Medici discussion guide and an excerpt from C.W. Gortner's The Queen's Vow.
The truth is, not one of us is innocent. We all have sins to confess.�So reveals Catherine de Medici, the last legitimate descendant of her family’s illustrious line. Expelled from her native Florence, Catherine is betrothed to Henri, son of Fran�ois I of France. In an unfamiliar realm, Catherine strives to create a role for herself through her patronage of the famous clairvoyant Nostradamus and her own innate gift as a seer. But in her fortieth year, Catherine is widowed, left alone with six young children in a kingdom torn apart by the ambitions of a treacherous nobility. Relying on her tenacity, wit, and uncanny gift for compromise, Catherine seizes power, intent on securing the throne for her sons, unaware that if she is to save France, she may have to sacrifice her ideals, her reputation, and the secret of her embattled heart.
- Sales Rank: #84754 in eBooks
- Published on: 2010-05-13
- Released on: 2010-05-25
- Format: Kindle eBook
Amazon.com Review
C.W. Gortner on The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
I found Catherine de Medici to be both a perfect subject and enormous challenge for my next work of historical fiction. Though I’d known about her for years, I soon discovered during my research how little I had truly understood her. Few queens are as notorious as this woman who ruled France during the 16th century, renowned for her ruthlessness and accused of heinous crimes, including the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Obscured by her own dark legend, Catherine lurks in the shadows of history as the perennial black widow, weaving intrigue in her Louvre palace apartments even as outside her window, Paris lies bathed in blood.
Catherine was born in a time of deep religious conflict, when the idealism of Europe’s early Renaissance had given way to the zealous Protestant Reformation. England, Germany, and the Low Countries embraced this new faith, while imperial Spain tenaciously combated the spread of what was seen as heresy. France found itself trapped between the tenets of the old faith and innovation of the new one--and the struggle that ensued is marked by its fervor and savagery. It is also dominated by the widowed queen-mother, Catherine de Medici.
When someone lives an eventful life in a tumultuous time, there’s always more to her story than history can tell us. Catherine de Medici is a figure of lurid speculation but she had dreams and aspirations; hopes and disillusions. Yet unlike Elizabeth I, who commands our respect with her virginal splendor; or Mary of Scots, who elicits sympathy for her romantic martyrdom, Catherine has not been allowed much compassion. We forget that in the end, like all of us, she was human.
This is the flesh-and-blood Catherine de Medici readers will meet in my book: the teenage Florentine heiress sent to France to marry a prince she does not love; the determined wife enduring years in the shadow of her husband’s icy mistress; the powerful regent fighting for her country; the fierce mother with her brood of children; and the bold queen whose alliance with an enigmatic rebel plunges her into a labyrinth of passion, betrayal, and murder. You will also meet the seer Nostradamus, who shares a prophetic gift with Catherine; the haughty duke of Guise, whose ambitions could bring about France’s ruin; and Catherine’s own children--weak Francois, married to Mary of Scots yet terrified of becoming king; fervent Charles, scarred by the fears of his childhood; gallant Henri, whose courage hides a secret; deformed Hercule, frantic to prove his worth; and beautiful Margot, whose thwarted desires will wreak terrible vengeance.
Unlike the legend, Catherine’s true story is full of drama, courage, triumph and tragedy; set in a complex era of glamorous spectacle and lethal deceit, where one woman faced the conflict between faith and survival and did everything she had to, to protect those she loved.
I hope that once you read her words, you will find her as fascinating as I did. I hope you enjoy The Confessions of Catherine de Medici.
From Publishers Weekly
Catherine de Medici uses her natural and supernatural gifts to protect the French throne in Gortner's (The Last Queen) portrait of a queen willing to sacrifice happiness and reputation to fulfill her family's royal destiny. Orphan Catherine has her first vision at age 10, and three years later is betrothed to Henri d'Orleans, brother of the sickly heir to the French throne. She heads to France with a vial of poison hidden among her possessions, and after negotiating an uneasy truce with her husband's mistress, she matures into a powerful court presence, though power, she learns, comes at a price. Three of her sons become king in succession as the widow Catherine wields ever-increasing influence to keep the ambitious de Guise clan at bay and religious adversaries from murdering each other. Gortner's is not the first fictional reinterpretation of a historical villainess—Catherine's role in the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, for instance, is recounted in a way sympathetic to her—but hers is remarkably thoughtful in its insight into an unapologetically ruthless queen. (May)
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From Booklist
Gortner, author of The Last Queen (2008), fleshes out the notorious Catherine de Medici centuries after her death. Was she a victim of historical, political, and social circumstances or merely a ruthlessly ambitious power seeker? Gortner addresses these murky questions and throws in an intriguing bit of the mystical as her robustly imagined Catherine experiences prophetic visions as she charts the course of a turbulent life that took many unexpected twists and turns. During her childhood in her native Italy, she learns to make the most of every situation, a talent that stands her in good stead during her less-than-idyllic tenure as queen of France. After the death of her unfaithful husband, King Henry II, she wields the considerable authority and influence she has accumulated on behalf of her three sons, securing the throne for them, in turn, by any means necessary. Alison Weir and Philippa Gregory fans will devour this smashing fictonal biography of a complex woman whose legend has withstood the test of time. --Margaret Flanagan
Most helpful customer reviews
102 of 104 people found the following review helpful.
(4.5) "Love is a treacherous emotion. You'll fare better without it."
By Luan Gaines
Gortner's portrait of Catherine de Medici is rich in historical detail, a view inside the world of a woman touched by the hand of fate, France awash in religious wars in the late 16th century. In spite of Catherine's reputation as "the Italian Jezebel", Gortner melds fact and fiction, myth and legend in a fascinating, provocative tale that speaks of power, governance, passion, ambition and the realm of the occult. Catherine is expelled from Florence and the shadow of the Medici line, great-granddaughter of Il Magnifico, Lorenzo de Medici, sent to France as daughter-in-law to Francois I and wife of the Duc de Orleans. Still an impressionable girl, Catherine has expectations: a husband who might show her some small affection, the privilege of bearing his heirs. For all her fanciful dreams of a new life in France, Catherine learns that reality is fraught with danger, her husband's affections freely given to another, the judgment of the French people harsh, the fatherly love of Francois her only comfort.
Superstitious since childhood, Catherine reluctantly acknowledges her gift of "sight", plagued by dreams that foretell of death and violence. In time, as Queen of France, Catherine bears six children and is widowed at forty, just as has been prophesied, her legacy forever twined with the religious wars that dominate the century. Conflict spreads throughout the realm between the Church and the heretical beliefs of French Protestants, or Huguenots, cities plagued with public burnings and murderous rampages as though the hounds of Hell have been released. Ultimately, Catherine bears the bitter fruit of her blind loyalty to her children and love for an untrustworthy man. In protecting the Valois lineage, Catherine makes critical errors in judgment, underestimating rivals and the resentments of her own children. These are bloody times, the lessons of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre fresh and painful, Catherine mindful of the necessity for compromise, for peace.
From Florence, Italy, to the lush Loire Valley and an embattled Paris, Gortner separates myth from an abundance of fact, with a plethora of memorable historical figures, Nostradamus, the fanatical Philip II of Spain, the bitter enmity of her own daughter and the chaos of a country torn apart by religious persecution. Catherine is neither victim nor heroine, a product of her environment and heritage, cast into a fractious battle for the throne of France, overwhelmed and burdened, arrogant and foolish, lonely and driven. Given the inherent dangers of her position and the vicious wars that feed on intolerance, the reader is left to judge this woman, her pride, ambitions, betrayals and defeats, the ignominy of the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre and the misplaced affection for a man who will betray her trust. Much as he interpreted the life of Juana de Loca in The Last Queen, Gortner's Catherine de Medici is delivered from the realm of hyperbole to stand beside her powerful contemporaries in the late 16th century, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I. Luan Gaines/2010.
84 of 90 people found the following review helpful.
A softer Catherine
By Caitlin Martin
This was interesting, but not as good as I expected. It's possible my expectations were too high, but I really wanted a lot more from this book.
There were plenty of very powerful people in the 16th century who were afraid of Catherine de Medici and it's probably safe to say that there's a reason for that. As a widow with young children she preserved the throne for her sons, shepherded her daughters into advantageous marriages, and did the best she could to navigate the very dangerous waters of Catholic vs. Huguenot France. She's been described as ruthless and I'm positive she was pragmatic - the stakes of the game she was playing were too high for her to be anything else.
The author is quite obviously intent upon making Catherine de Medici a more sympathetic character by rounding out her story and telling it from her perspective. He does a good job of capturing her spirit and strength as a young woman, but as she comes into power as Queen Regent her character begins to falter. In attempting to soften her the author instead turns her into a sort of bumbling hysteric, calling on mystics and stumbling her way into various massacres.
I found this portrayal highly unlikely. Why can't I be allowed to admire her for her strength, her intelligence, her patronage of the arts, her ability to survive? Why does she have to flutter about wringing her hands for me to empathize with her? I found this aspect of the book very frustrating despite the fact that the story itself is a decent read.
50 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
Allie's Review - Hist-Fic Chick
By A. Greenwald
The Catherine de Medici most know of from historical fiction of days gone by is the infamous Dowager Queen of France who dabbled in the black arts and used her royal children as pawns on her chessboard, setting her country on a path of bloody religious discord. But C.W. Gortner has never been one to accept historical stereotypes as reality, and his latest novel proves to be no exception to his quest to reveal the human side of infamously maligned women from history.
Forced by politics to marry for Italy and not for love, Catherine de Medici is sent abroad at a young age to marry Henri, the second son of King Fran�ois I of France. She had never presumed that she might one day become queen; after all, her husband is the younger son and simply fills the role of the spare in the requisite heir-and-a-spare dynastic setup. But when tragedy strikes and Henri has to step up to the plate as King, Catherine finds herself in a new position at court. However, Queen of France as she may be, Catherine would never be Queen of Henri's heart. That position was already occupied by his mistress the chilly Diane de Poitiers. The Mrs. Robinson of the 16th Century, Diane was a cougar who wasn't afraid to show her claws, often at Catherine's expense.
Catherine actually holds more queenly powers as a widow after her husband's death, no longer queen in name but queen in the eyes of the people, as regent to her young sons who reign consecutively. With this newfound power, she sets to righting the wrongs her powerful enemies at court had once wrought on the nation, and to securing peace between the Catholics and Huguenots. Gortner addresses the rumors that give Catherine the reputation of power-seeking sorceress, but with an eye for characterizing Catherine as a human and never as one who sought to wreak havoc between the two faiths. Many historians are of the belief that were it not for Catherine de Medici, the French monarchy would have fallen two hundred years before the Revolution ever took place, and Gortner portrays Catherine from this same perspective. Strong, intelligent, and strategically minded, Catherine is a force to be reckoned with. There are definitely some "confessions" to be revealed in this book; some unexpected twists you won't find in the history books that add an impassioned spark to this already blazing storyline!
I really love the way Gortner tells his stories from the first person perspective, something he does incredibly well. His other historical fiction novel, The Last Queen is one of my favorites and I find myself constantly recommending it to people. Gortner's inherent writerly voice consistently shines through in his novels, yet the two protagonists he profiles in both have inimitable voices of their own, formulated with the artistry of a master at his craft.
The Confessions of Catherine de Medici hits stores May 25th. C.W. Gortner's next novel focuses on another so-called ruthless queen: Isabel of Castile, and I cannot wait to read it!
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