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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"I would love one king so that I might please another.", July 7, 2009
This review is from: The French Mistress: A Novel of the Duchess of Portsmouth and King Charles II (Mass Market Paperback)
Holloway Scott makes a valiant effort to rehabilitate one of the most reviled courtesans of Charles II of England's Restoration court. An innocent when first sent to the French court of Louis XIV, Louise de Keroualle cuts her teeth on political intrigue as lady-in-waiting to Charles' sister, Henriette-Anne, wife of the cruel Duc d' Orleans. Louise becomes an integral part of a critical intrigue of the era: a secret treaty between France and England. Louise styles herself "the secret cause of the secret treaty". Adept at adjusting to political expedience and personal aggrandizement, de Keroualle bears witness to the indignities suffered by her mistress, developing an attachment to King Charles from afar. After the duchess d'Orleans' tragic- and suspicious- death, Louise is sent by the French monarch to Charles's court, there to insinuate herself into his life and serve as a vital link between the two kings.
Holloway Scott introduces her protagonist as a young, impressionable girl, loyal to her mistress and shocked by the debauchery of the French court, rivaled only by Charles' hedonistic court in an age of libertines, political opportunists and extravagant spending. Her first lesson: trust no one but yourself. From a penniless lady-in-waiting to the intimate of kings, Louise propels herself through beauty, wit and guile into a position that is virtually unassailable, one of the randy Restoration king's most beloved paramours until his death, when she is credited with guiding him back to the True Religion, Louis's most fond aspiration. De Keroualle is nothing if not inventive, her beauty guaranteeing interest, then a gradual seduction and legitimate love affair with the king even though the sophisticated Charles realizes Louise is an agent of the French monarch: "Now I will grant that innocence is relative and mine was worn and tattered indeed."
The most compelling aspect of this fictional recreation is the kabuki theater enacted by two kings whose secret treaty pours much-needed funds into English coffers. Certainly, Louise benefits from the secret payments, secure in her exquisite rooms as England reels with an impending war with the Dutch and Parliament determines to keep their king Protestant in spite of his fascination with all things French. Outliving her beloved by fifty years, the intrepid de Keroualle fulfills a long-ago prophecy, "prized by two kings, a duchess in my own right and mother to a duke". Yet for all her cleverness, the acquisitive Louise fails to spark this reader's imagination in contrast to the king's other notable paramours, lacking the voluptuous passion of the fertile Barbara Castlemaine or the bawdy humor of stage actress Nell Gwyn. Surrounded by powerful men, liaison between kings, Louise de Keroualle teases, manipulates and instigates, victim of a plot to defame her, yet firmly entrenched in the affections of the charismatic, hedonistic Charles Stuart. Luan Gaines/ 2009.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"A queen among kings, yet without a crown of her own", July 8, 2009
This review is from: The French Mistress: A Novel of the Duchess of Portsmouth and King Charles II (Mass Market Paperback)
The French Mistress is the story of Louise de Keroualle, beloved paramour to King Charles II of England.
Louise's journey to prominence begins at the court of King Louise XIV where she was sent to serve as Maid of Honor to his sister-in-law, the Duchess d'Orleans. Henrietta, or as she was known at court, Madame, is also sister to the king of England, Charles II. Louise and Madame form a strong friendship over time and Madame comes to depend on Louise almost exclusively.
When Madame travels to England and Louise is of her party, she and Charles meet for the first time. They are infatuated with each other immediately. Really, Louise had already fallen in love with Charles through stories told to her by Madame of his kindness, mercy and honor. Henrietta, or Minette, and Charles have a singularly close relationship, quite an extraordinary thing for Royal siblings. Indeed, it is my belief that the strong bond that was to form a little later between Charles and Louise is strongly based on their equal love and affection of Henrietta.
After Madame mysteriously falls ill and passes away, Louise's future is uncertain and she is left to await her fate. Louise XIV and his councilors, aware of the monarch's affection for Louise, commission her to join Charles II's court with the purpose of becoming his mistress, getting close to him and then pass on vital information to France. Louise readily agrees, but has an agenda of her own.
Nell Gwyn and Barbara Palmer (Lady Castlemaine) are the principal mistresses at the time of Louise's arrival and although they don't pose much threat, at least one of them benefits from mocking and ridiculing her mannerisms. Being that Louise is French (mortal enemies of Englishmen since forever) and a Roman Catholic in a Protestant country still hostile towards anyone of the Old Religion, she is not what you would call popular. Nor does she care. Louise is there to love her man and to reap the benefits of that relationship. I'd say she does a good job: when all is said and done, Louise does walk away with more honors than Nell and Barbara combined. With all of these gorgeous women fighting for his time, you can see why Charles II was nicknamed the "Merry Monarch"!
I very much enjoyed Ms. Scott's portrayal of Louise and style of writing in general. The way she wrote Louise put me in mind of Jean Plaidy in regards to painting the heroine as authentically as possible, letting the reader form their own opinion. I can imagine the difficulty in that - what writer wouldn't want a perfect heroine and what writer doesn't form their own opinion over time of said heroine?
The French Mistress is highly recommended by yours truly and you know I would never steer you wrong! Susan Holloway Scott writes one fantastic author, Louise is a fascinating heroine and Charles is as charming as ever, you'll see why the ladies loved him!
Now I am off to get my hands on Susan's other novels - The King's Favorite (A Novel of Charles II and Nell Gwyn) and Royal Harlot (A Novel of the Countess of Castlemaine and Charles II).
A big thanks to NAL/Penguin and Susan Holloway Scott for providing me with hours of reading pleasure!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Eh., May 22, 2010
This review is from: The French Mistress: A Novel of the Duchess of Portsmouth and King Charles II (Mass Market Paperback)
Having just finished "The King's Favorite," I was very impressed with Ms. Scott's writing style and dedication to historical accuracy. She endeared Nell Gwyn to me even more than before, and I was absolutely lost in that book from start to finish. I dove straight into The "French Mistress" hoping for the same effect, but I was somewhat disappointed. I will grant that the Duchess of Portsmouth is usually not among my favorite historical characters, but Karleen Koen's "Dark Angels" had softened me towards her. Not the case with "The French Mistress." If Ms. Scott was trying to make me sympathetic towards this usually vilified mistress of Charles II, she failed. Even in the very beginning when Louise is a fresh country innocent, she seemed a little too wrapped up with herself and what her devotion to her mistress could do for her to be convincingly sweet and naive. Almost immediately after her first visit to England Louise seemed to become extremely calculating and manipulative -which in all fairness she probably would have had to have been to survive- but it was very off-putting. Aside from crying over every little thing (which she was notorious for), she seemed to be constantly puffing and preening about her beauty, her skills as a hostess, her living quarters, her wardrobe, her jewels, her perceived influence over Charles, Queen Catherine's fondness for her- it just went on and on. Every little interaction she had with Charles seemed planned out to put her at the best advantage- eventually I was questioning whether she really loved him as much as she was constantly claiming she did. Everything Louise did, in her eyes, was just wonderful and brilliant, and of course all of those others who felt otherwise were of no importance and beneath her notice because she was a French Lady and more beautiful and clever than them and the king loved her. He LOVES her, okay? Because she is WONDERFUL. Period! Not the sort of person you'd like to be around or talk to in real life, and not the sort of person you'd want to spend a whole novel reading about, either. It was so bad at one point I caught myself actively looking forward to her bout with the pox, hoping to see her get taken down a few notches. Not a good sign, granted Louise managed to gloss over that little episode quickly enough and in a matter of paragraphs she was right back up there being wonderful again, at least until Hortense Mancini (who despite being a great beauty of her time, Louise describes as rough and mannish) shows up. Charles was also becoming tedious to me, the poster boy for the petty cheating boyfriend rather than a dashing, romantic, roguish Libertine women would fall all over themselves for (King or not), at points using exact quotes he'd used on Nell in reverse and trash-talking his other mistress to keep Louise happy, etc. Towards the end the telling of historical points of significance were more like reading a text book or hearing a lecture than a novel (particularly because they did not seem to pertain even indirectly to Louise at all), and I found myself skipping paragraphs and pages trying to get back into the story end of it (this could also be because I've read about Charles' reign many, many times and most of these points are old news to me). I think my reception of this book and heroine might have been warmer and more generous had I not just read "The King's Favorite," and to that point I will wait a while and perhaps read it again sometime when I've taken a break from the Restoration period.
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