Description
Book SynopsisSullen-eyed and broken-hearted, fourteen-year-old Catherine de'' Medici arrives in Marseilles to marry Henry of Orleans, second son of the King of France. On the promise of a dowry fit for a king, Catherine has left her true love in Italy, forced into trading her future for a stake in the French crown.
Amid the glittering fêtes and banquets of the most immoral court in sixteenth-century Europe, the reluctant bride becomes a passionate but unwanted wife. Humiliated and unloved, Catherine spies on Henry and his lover, the infamous Diane de Poitiers. And, tortured by what she sees, Catherine becomes dangerously occupied by a ruthless ambition destined to make her the most despised woman in France: the dream that one day the French crown will be worn be a Medici heir...
Trade ReviewHer novels are still very much to be enjoyed ... Any writer who can both educate and thrill a reader of any age deserves to be remembered and find new fans ... One only has to look at the TV/Media to see that the appetite for this kind of writing is still very much there -- Matt Bates * WH Smith Travel *
Madame Serpent is the best kind of historical novel - one into which we sink with pleasure and a feeling of undeserved education * Spectator *
Plaidy excels at blending history with romance and drama * New York Times *
Jean Plaidy, by the skilful blending of superb storytelling and meticulous attention to authenticity of detail and depth of charaterization has become one of the country's most widely read novelists * Sunday Times *
Full-blooded, dramatic, exciting * Observer *
