Young And Damned And Fair: The Life Of Catherine Howard, Fifth Wife Of King Henry Viii

  • Author: Gareth Russell
  • Narrator: Jenny Funnell
  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster
  • Duration: 15:57:32
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Synopsis

Written with an exciting combination of narrative flair and historical authority, this biography of Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Catherine Howard, is “a stunning achievement” (The Sunday Times, London), and “a masterly work of Tudor history that is engrossing, sympathetic, suspenseful, and illuminating” (Charlotte Gordon, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography).

On the morning of July 28, 1540, a teenager named Catherine Howard began her reign as queen of an England simmering with rebellion and terrifying uncertainty. Sixteen months later, she would follow her cousin Anne Boleyn to the scaffold, having been convicted of adultery and high treason.

The broad outlines of Catherine’s career might be familiar, but her story up until now has been incomplete. Unlike previous biographies, which portray her as a naïve victim of an ambitious family, Gareth Russell’s “excellent account puts the oft-ignored Catherine in her proper historical context” (Daily Mail, London) and sheds new light on her rise and downfall by showing her in her context, a milieu that includes the aristocrats and, most critically, the servants who surrounded her and who, in the end, conspired against her. By illuminating Catherine’s entwined upstairs/downstairs world as well as societal tensions beyond the palace walls, Russell offers a fascinating portrayal of court life in the sixteenth century and a fresh analysis of the forces beyond Catherine’s control that led to her execution.

Including a forgotten text of Catherine’s confession in her own words, color illustrations, family tree, map, and extensive notes, Young and Damned and Fair is “a gripping account of a young woman’s future destroyed by forces beyond her control…an important and timely book” (Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire). This account changes our understanding of one of history’s most famous women while telling the compelling and very human story of complex individuals attempting to survive in a dangerous age.

Chapters

  • YoungAndDamned 01 Open

    Duration: 41s
  • YoungAndDamned 02 Dedication

    Duration: 30s
  • YoungAndDamned 03 Introduction

    Duration: 19min
  • YoungAndDamned 04 Chapter1

    Duration: 38min
  • YoungAndDamned 05 Chapter2

    Duration: 37min
  • YoungAndDamned 06 Chapter3

    Duration: 37min
  • YoungAndDamned 07 Chapter4

    Duration: 49min
  • YoungAndDamned 08 Chapter5

    Duration: 34min
  • YoungAndDamned 09 Chapter6

    Duration: 51min
  • YoungAndDamned 10 Chapter7

    Duration: 48min
  • YoungAndDamned 11 Chapter8

    Duration: 43min
  • YoungAndDamned 12 Chapter9

    Duration: 46min
  • YoungAndDamned 13 Chapter10

    Duration: 35min
  • YoungAndDamned 14 Chapter11

    Duration: 21min
  • YoungAndDamned 15 Chapter12

    Duration: 43min
  • YoungAndDamned 16 Chapter13

    Duration: 39min
  • YoungAndDamned 17 Chapter14

    Duration: 01h06min
  • YoungAndDamned 18 Chapter15

    Duration: 38min
  • YoungAndDamned 19 Chapter16

    Duration: 51min
  • YoungAndDamned 20 Chapter17

    Duration: 24min
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