Catherine de Medici

Renaissance Queen of France

By: Leonie Frieda

Narrated by: Sarah Le Fevre

The inspiration for the STARZ original series, The Serpent Queen—second season premiering July 12th!

“A beautifully written portrait of a ruthless, subtle and fearless woman fighting for survival and power in a world of gangsterish brutality, routine assassination and religious mania. . . . Frieda has brought a largely forgotten heroine-villainess and a whole sumptuously vicious era back to life. . . . This is The Godfather meets Elizabeth.” —Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar

Poisoner, besotted mother, despot, necromancer, engineer of a massacre: the dark legend of Catherine de Medici is centuries old. In this critically hailed biography, Leonie Frieda reclaims the story of this unjustly maligned queen of France to reveal a skilled ruler battling extraordinary political and personal odds.

Based on comprehensive research including thousands of Catherine’s own letters, Frieda unfurls Catherine’s story from her troubled childhood in Florence to her tumultuous marriage to Henry II of France; her transformation of French culture to her reign as a queen who would use brutality to ensure her children’s royal birthright. Brilliantly executed, this enthralling biography goes beyond myth to paint a very human portrait of this remarkable figure.

Exceptional

Excellently written and the narrator is soothing yet not boring. I loved this book and listened to it twice in two weeks.

Better than TV series

Nothing like the STARs TV series. It is much better if you actually want the facts.

love this book

I love it so much I'm obsessed with this family line cause I can trace my tree back to them

Fascinating woman

I did not know much about Catherine de Medici and I learned a lot. The story is very well told, including both her life and the times that she lived in. I did have some issues with the narration and specifically the treatment of proper nouns. French names are pronounced in a way that is neither French nor English, but some sort of mixture. For example, in “Charles,” the Ch is soft in the French way, but the es is not silent as it should be for a French pronunciation. Almost every other name received a similar treatment, like some sort of parody of Maurice Chevalier. I found this distracting and after a while, quite annoying.

An Excellent Biography, With Excellent Narration

This is an excellent work. I learned a great deal. I purchased a hard copy of this book and also the audiobook. The narration is excellent, however for me as an American, there are a lot of foreign names that I really needed a hard copy in order to read. The hard copy also has maps, family lines, and many notes that really added to the reading and learning experience. However this audiobook is about as good as it can be considering the complicated nature of the work. I suppose I should add that this book is really detailed and may be more than some readers will want. But speaking for myself, I am really glad that I purchased it. Thank You...