The Devil's Queen: A Novel of Catherine De Medici

Jeanne Kalogridis

Language: English

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: Jul 21, 2009

Description:

From Jeanne Kalogridis, the bestselling author of I, Mona Lisa and The Borgia Bride , comes a new novel that tells the passionate story of a queen who loved not wisely . . . but all too well.

Confidante of Nostradamus, scheming mother-in-law to Mary, Queen of Scots, and architect of the bloody St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, Catherine de Medici is one of the most maligned monarchs in history. In her latest historical fiction, Jeanne Kalogridis tells Catherine's story—that of a tender young girl, destined to be a pawn in Machiavellian games.

Born into one of Florence's most powerful families, Catherine was soon left a fabulously rich heiress by the early deaths of her parents. Violent conflict rent the city state and she found herself imprisoned and threatened by her family's enemies before finally being released and married off to the handsome Prince Henry of France.

Overshadowed by her husband's mistress, the gorgeous, conniving Diane de Poitiers, and unable to bear children, Catherine resorted to the dark arts of sorcery to win Henry's love and enhance her fertility—for which she would pay a price. Against the lavish and decadent backdrop of the French court, and Catherine's blood-soaked visions of the future, Kalogridis reveals the great love and desire Catherine bore for her husband, Henry, and her stark determination to keep her sons on the throne.

Frescă istorică somptuoasă şi captivantă, romanul Regina diavolului proiectează, dintr-o nouă perspectivă, un portret complex, nuanţat, în clarobscur al uneia dintre marile suverane ale Franţei. Istoria o judecă aspru pe Caterina de Medici: o regină a Franţei adeptă a magiei negre, ale cărei mâini sunt pătate de sângele vărsat în masacrul din Noaptea Sfântului Bartolomeu. Romanul lui Jeanne Kalogridis ne arată însă o altă Caterina: o tânără inteligentă pe care rangul, numele şi averea o destinau unei „căsătorii de stat“. Demnă de numele familiei sale, care a dat Europei Renaşterii conducători şi papi, Caterina refuză, pentru a-şi apăra soţul şi apoi fiii, să rămână un simplu pion în jocul politic al bărbaţilor. Va fi nevoită să preia frâiele puterii şi să le păstreze, cu orice preţ.