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The Confessions of Catherine de Medici
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The Confessions of Catherine de Medici (2010) (edit title/settings)

by C. W. Gortner (Author) (edit contributors)

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Acclaimed author C. W. Gortner brings Catherine to life in her own voice, allowing us to enter into the intimate world of a woman whose determination to protect her family’s throne and realm plunged her into a lethal struggle for power.

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The truth is, none of us are innocent. We all have sins to confess. So reveals Catherine de Medici in this brilliantly imagined novel about one of history’s most powerful and controversial women. To some she was the ruthless queen who led France into an era of savage violence. To others she... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

The truth is, none of us are innocent. We all have sins to confess. So reveals Catherine de Medici in this brilliantly imagined novel about one of history’s most powerful and controversial women. To some she was the ruthless queen who led France into an era of savage violence. To others she was the passionate savior of the French monarchy.

The last legitimate descendant of the illustrious Medici line, Catherine suffers the expulsion of her family from her native Florence and narrowly escapes death at the hands of an enraged mob. While still a teenager, she is betrothed to Henri, son of François I of France, and sent from Italy to an unfamiliar realm where she is overshadowed and humiliated by her husband’s lifelong mistress. Ever resilient, 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 as regent of a kingdom torn apart by religious discord and 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. She allies herself with the enigmatic Protestant leader Coligny, with whom she shares an intimate secret, and implacably carves a path toward peace, unaware that her own dark fate looms before her—a fate that, if she is to save France, will demand the sacrifice of her ideals, her reputation, and the passion of her embattled heart. From the fairy-tale châteaux of the Loire Valley to the battlefields of the wars of religion to the mob-filled streets of Paris, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici is the extraordinary untold journey of one of the most maligned and misunderstood women ever to be queen.

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  • “How little they know me. How little anyone knows me. Perhaps it was ever my fate to dwell alone in the myth of my own life, to bear witness to the legend that has sprung around me like some venomous bloom. I have been called murderess and opportunist, savior and victim. And along the way, become far more than was ever expected of me, even if loneliness was always present, like a faithful hound at my heels.”
  • “As I passed the alcove, I sensed a presence. I whirled about. I couldn’t contain my gasp when I saw Nostradamus materialize as if from nowhere. ‘You scared me to death! How did you get in here?’ ‘Through the door,’ he said, ‘No one noticed.”
  • Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
  • ‘Quod de futuris non est determinata omnino veritas’: No truth can be determined for certain that concerns the future.”
    Highlighted by 15 Kindle customers
  • “‘From this arises an argument: whether it is better to be loved than feared. I reply that one should like to be both one and the other; but since it is difficult to join them together, it is much safer to be feared than loved when one of the two must be lacking.’”
    Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers
  • “‘No truth can be determined for certain that concerns the future.’”
    Highlighted by 12 Kindle customers
  • “But we are each created in God’s image and must be allowed to seek our path to Him in our own way.”
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
  • IN FLORENCE WHEN A LOVED ONE DIES, WE SET OUT FEASTS. WE invite our relatives, neighbors, and friends to eat and recount our times with the departed. We tell tales, some humorous, others sad, but always with the aim of keeping our loved one with us awhile longer. We allow the celebration of life to assuage our grief and guide us toward the future that awaits us.
    Highlighted by 11 Kindle customers
  • “Clement VII was born a bastard. He bribed his way to the Holy See, to our great shame. He’s not a true Medici. He has no honor.”
    Highlighted by 9 Kindle customers
  • “Love is a treacherous emotion. You’ll fare better without it.
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • “Huguenots?” I echoed. I had heard only a brief mention of them in passing at court. “Yes. Protestants, followers of Jean Calvin. Up till now His Majesty has chosen to ignore their existence. But I fear a time fast approaches when he’ll have to take them into account.”
    Highlighted by 7 Kindle customers
  • Love is a treacherous emotion. You’ll fare better without it. We Medici always have.
    Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
  • survived the night already being recorded in infamy as the Massacre of St. Bartholomew.
    Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
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First Sentence edit see section history

I was ten years old when I discovered I might be a witch.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. C. W. Gortner (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2010
ISBN: 978-0-345-50186-8
Page Count: 391

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More Books Like This edit see section history

   
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  • The Other Boleyn Girl
  • The Constant Princess

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • Catherine de' Medici

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