Customer Reviews

Catherine De Medici

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I read the book when I was quite young. I still remember the many nights I stayed up to read it. And I read it TWICE! It gave a detailed account of Catherine de Medici from her childhood days till her death. The adventures and intrigue she went through can only be rivalled by the Chinese empress/emperor, Wu Che Tian. If you have seen the French movie, Queen Margot (starring Isabelle Adjani), it only gave you a fleeting glance of Catherine de Medici. After all she was just the Queen Mother of the title character of the movie. But in "Catherine de Medici", she took centre stage. See her manipulated and conspired to make her daughter and sons, queen and kings. And the price she paid for it would astound you. It is indeed unfortunate that this masterpiece by Jean Plaidy is out of print. Somebody should have the sense to reprint it again and again.

The caracters are so interesting,strong,attractive that i imagine them presented by great actors of the cinema.This is not only a triler,but a profound psychological exploration of the human nature.

"Catherine de' Medici" was originally published as a trilogy - the original titles were "Madame Serpent", "The Italian Woman", and "Queen Jezebel". However it's bound, the trilogy or book is great reading.

It was also an interesting experiment. Unlike virtually all other modern works of fiction, the protagonist of "Catherine de' Medici" is completely unsympathetic. We see how she was moulded by her aunt and uncle into a soulless, heartless psychopath; how she manipulated and was manipulated by her husband and his mistress; how she used and abused her own children to achieve her own goal of ultimate power; and how her failure to understand the human heart led to her own downfall. It's a harrowing portrait of a psychopath protagonist. I suspect a lot of readers who are looking for melodrama and "glittering" intrigue never catch on, which is too bad: few writers are brave enough to attempt an unsympathetic protagonist, and those who do usually fail, often by making their protagonist more sympathetic than they originally intended to. Plaidy succeeds in part because she avoided this trap.

One note: this book was first published in the early 1950s and reflects the historical and psychological knowledge of its time.

Catalina de Médicis, hija de una rica familia de italianos emparentados directamente con el Papa, nunca llegó a imaginarse que un día se convertiría en Reina de Francia. Lamentablemente la historia la recordaría tristemente como envenenadora, intrigante y como la organizadora y promotora de la Matanza de la Noche de San Bartolomé, ocurrida en París el 24 de Agosto de 1572, y que es quizá el mayor genocidio religioso de todos los tiempos. En esta apasionante novela Jean Plaidy nos presenta a la Reina Catalina desde sus primeros años de vida, cuando era una inocente niña de la Italia Renacentista, hasta que se convierte en la mujer madura, llena de odios, pasiones, desengaños y frustaciones, que llevaría a Francia a la ruina. Si Usted ama la novela histórica, este es un libro que no debe dejar de leer.

Catalina de Médicis, hija de una rica familia de italianos emparentados directamente con el Papa, nunca llegó a imaginarse que un día se convertiría en Reina de Francia. Lamentablemente la historia la recordaría tristemente como envenenadora, intrigante y como la organizadora y promotora de la Matanza de la Noche de San Bartolomé, ocurrida en París el 24 de Agosto de 1572, y que es quizá el mayor genocidio religioso de todos los tiempos. En esta apasionante novela Jean Plaidy nos presenta a la Reina Catalina desde sus primeros años de vida, cuando era una inocente niña de la Italia Renacentista, hasta que se convierte en la mujer madura, llena de odios, pasiones, desengaños y frustaciones, que llevaría a Francia a la ruina. Si Usted ama la novela histórica, este es un libro que no debe dejar de leer.