FROM RAGS TO RICHES... | Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill

Part II of the Religious Feuding that Henry VIII Started | Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill | Susan Holloway Scott

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	• Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill Susan Holloway Scott NAL Trade, 2006 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 24 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good Book

I didn't know anything about the Churchill's before I read this book. They were both very ambitious people even bordering on manipulative. Sarah more so than John. John's love for Sarah was very tender and I loved seeing that! I enjoyed reading about Anne (the princess and future Queen) and Sarah. What I did not care for was reading the parts of their 'lesbian liaisons'. It left me with a sick feeling. I don't think my husband would be quite so understanding as John was - even if it was to secure my station! The politics over religion were very enlightening and educational. Overall, this was a book worth reading if you like this English time period.

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FROM RAGS TO RICHES...

This is an entertaining and well-written work of historical fiction, telling the story of Sarah Jennings, who rose from rags to riches in the Restoration Court of Charles II. There, thirteen year old Sarah, as a newly appointed maid of honor to the newly wed Duchess York, Mary Beatrice, wife to the King's brother, James, the Duke of York, met and befriended the Dukes daughter, Lady Anne of York, who was five years he junior. As the Lady Anne grew up, she and the beautiful Sarah would form a friendship that would prove fortunate for Sarah and last nearly a lifetime.

The ambitious but impoverished Sarah would disdain the lure of becoming a rich man's mistress. She met and eventually married the equally ambitious John Churchill, a military hero. Happily married, though they lived in one of the most licentious courts in Europe, together they would weather the tumultuousness of Court life and prevail, despite the roadblocks they would meet along the way. They would also help to pave the way for the Anne to take the throne from her father, James, after he became king upon the death of his brother, Charles II.

Sarah's friendship with the newly crowned Queen would bring her and her husband many rewards and provoke much jealousy. Together, Sarah and her husband, John, would grow famously wealthy and achieve great political power, eventually becoming the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough. Sarah's friendship with Anne, however, would eventually meet a most ignominious end, brought about by the machinations of one more ambitious and devious than herself, her own kinswoman, Abigail Masham.

Both Sarah and her husband, stripped of all positions and honors, would leave England in disgrace to wander aimlessly about Europe for two years. Eventually they would be invited by Prince George of Hanover, the Queen's designated heir, to return to London with the promise of John's full restoral of all former ranks and positions. Upon their arrival, they learned the news that the Queen was dead and that Prince George of Hanover was now King George I of England. Sarah and John's homecoming would overshadow the Queen's death, as they were met with adoring crowds that welcomed them home. The King kept his promise and Sarah and John resumed their exalted place in society.

This book is written in the first person, so all events are seen though the eyes of the Duchess. It is a book that those who like historical fiction will enjoy, as it is replete with historical detail, as well as the political intrigues and personages of the day. It is of note that Sarah and John are the ancestors of both Princess Diana and Sir Winston Churchill, both seeming to have followed in their ancestors' footsteps.

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Part II of the Religious Feuding that Henry VIII Started

I found this book particularly compelling because, having much more knowledge of Henry VIII and his break from the Catholic Church and the reign of his daughter "Bloody Mary," I was surprised to learn that, 100 years after Elizabeth's Protestant reign, the fight between the Catholic Church and the Anglican Church for the souls of England continued at a ferocious pitch.

This novel offers an absorbing look at the palace intrigues of this period and the willingness of England to go to war against various countries. Susan Holloway Scott weaves a fascinating story from the point of view of Sarah Churchill.
-- Phyllis Zimbler Miller

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Recommended to to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and would like to learn more about the Churchills...

This is a fictional biography of Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlboro, the ancestress of the Prime Minister Winston Churchill. I watched the BBC mini-series before I read this book, which was excellent, and a nice intro to the Churchill family history. The author did a very good job recounting this very interesting woman's life in a fictional form. She clearly did a lot of research, and for the most part the novel stays loyal to historical facts, which is what I liked about it, in addition to its well written form. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and would like to learn more about the Churchills...

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fascinating

I know very little about history, so I really have nothing to say about whether this book is historically accurate or not. For me, that's beside the point. Bad reader, I know, particularly when it's a fictionalized biography of an actual historical figure, but I'm trying to be honest here.

So when I started reading this, I knew nothing about Sarah Churchill, which also means I had no preconceived ideas about her. It follows her life from the time she arrives in court as a young girl attending Princess Anne.

She quickly becomes very adept at court life--politics and intrigue and knowing who to cultivate and who to snub, and most importantly, she avoids becoming a casualty of court life--a mistress of the king or some other powerful man.

She falls in love with John Churchill, who's very much like her with a similar non-wealthy background and very politically astute. She holds out for marriage, while he's determined to marry for wealth and have Sarah as a mistress.

The book tells of her fluctuating political fortunes, tied to those of Princess Anne, and I found it just fascinating, particularly because it doesn't just give a list of events, but the thoughts and emotions motivating them. It also paints a very vivid picture of court life at the time.

So I've been entertained, and learned a little about British history in the process. And if historical scholars have different interpretations of the personalities and events in the book, I'm sorry, but I just can't bring myself to get too worried about it.

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London: 1673. With her family ruined by war, penniless thirteen-year-old Sarah Jennings is overjoyed to be chosen as a maid of honor at the bawdy Restoration court of Charles II. Her beauty stirs the desires of the jaded aristocrats, but Sarah wants a grander future for herself than that of a pampered mistress. As allies, she chooses John Churchill, a military hero whose ambition and passions match her own, and befriends the Lady Anne of York, a lonely royal princess who comes to trust Sarah over all others.

But Whitehall Palace is ripe with ever-shifting alliances and sexual scandal, and Sarah will need all her cleverness to succeed. Titles, power, and wealth are the prizes, while an idle whisper in the wrong ear can bring a cry of treason, and the executioner's axe. Will Sarah's loyalties -- and her dreams -- falter when a king is toppled from his throne, and a new queen crowned? And will she dare risk everything when her one true love is tested by a passionate, dangerous obsession?

Brimming with the intrigue and sensuality of one of history's most decadent courts, DUCHESS brings to vivid life the story of an unforgettable woman who determines her own destiny -- outspoken, outrageous, but most of all true to herself and her heart.

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