Courtesan: A Novel by Diane Haeger Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Courtesan: A Novel
Book Review: Interesting, Flawed
Summary: 3 Stars
Courtesan / 1-4000-5174-6
This is not a bad book, but it does fall prey to a lot of flaws. Haeger's characters tend to all look and sound precisely the same, despite differences in age, temperament, upbringing, and social status. The characters are all very one-dimensional - the good people are always, unfailingly good; the bad ones are awful and spiteful, regardless of how kind they are treated. Haeger lacks the lighter touch of, say, Philippa Gregory, who manages in even her worst novels to still lend a sympathetic air to the wronged wife and an occasional claw, tooth, or nail to the sweet, patient mistress.
Although I cannot speak to the historic accuracy of this novel, it seems jarringly unlikely that this sweet-tempered, perfect mistress would never once be even a tiny bit jealous of her husband's necessary visits to his legal wife. There's a lot of Mary Sue-ism going on here, and it distracts from the narrative. I would have liked our mistress to show a little backbone, humanity, and gumption - even some private angst would have sufficed - rather than smile brainlessly, constantly, regardless of the hardships she endures. And, similarly, I would have liked our antagonist-wife to show something more three-dimensional than just pure hatred, rage, and frustration. While we're on the subject, the king is badly rendered as well, seeming to just be a cipher to react to both women. The novel reads quickly enough and isn't technically bad, but the characters are bland and uninteresting and I was pleased when the novel was finally over.
Book Review: Despite the errors, a charming book
Summary: 3 Stars
Despite the many grammatical errors already pointed out by a previous reviewer, this book does have its charming moments, and is a fairly well-written (minus the errors) tale about Diane de Poitiers and her life. Many famous historical characters make significant appearances within the book, such as Catherine de Medici, whom the author doesn't much like.
I enjoyed the flow and thought the descriptions were particularly well done. It's just too bad this wasn't better edited.
Book Review: A captivating novel
Summary: 4 Stars
Haeger grasps the reader's attention early on in this book, and successfully keeps it until the end. I was captivated by the relationship between Diane de Pointers and Henri from beginning till end.
This is a great novel of historical fiction, although the word fiction should be emphasised here. Haeger has not stayed inside the framework of historical accuracy, as the year she gives for the beginning of their relationship is way off. But if she did it for the sake of a good story, then it worked.
Book Review: Did This Inspire Princess Michael's Book?
Summary: 2 Stars
Diane Haeger wrote this novel of Diane de Poitiers in 1992, and until 2005, we were mercifully spared Princess Michael of Kent's supposed "biographical" book about Diane, "The Serpent and The Moon". But the similarities are many.
This book is a guilty pleasure for those who enjoy historical fiction. This is not particularly good historical fiction, but Haeger does manage to keep the reader turning the page. The descriptions of the sumptuous life of Renaissance France are lavish and well written. Haeger's frequent grammatical mishaps spoil some of the seriousness of the plot: she uses the linguistic 'palate' when she means artistic 'palette'; a character does not 'fair' well, when she means 'fare' well; characters 'peeled' with laughter when she means 'pealed'; a Court 'teaming' with intrigue when she means 'teeming'; 'imminent' royals when she means 'eminent'; and there are a dismaying number of these malaprops in the novel. They inject a note of silliness into many of the book's passages.
Ms. Haeger shares Princess Michael's later extreme bias in favor of Diane de Poitiers and contempt for Catherine de Medici. The character development of Diane is unrelentingly saintly, eventually becoming cloying and outright sappy. Catherine is usually described as wearing an evil smile, thinking evil thoughts, etc. And most sadly, both authors refer to Catherine in cruel terms: "fat little Catherine", Catherine's "fat little fingers" "fat little face and bulging eyes," her "fat little body" sitting on brocaded chairs. Catherine was clearly not as beautiful as Diane, to judge from their portraits, but she was also one of the more capable rulers in French history. The catty cruelty spoils the author's character development of Catherine, one of the most complex and remarkable women of the Renaissance.
King Francois I, father of Diane's adoring lover Henry I, fares no better. He is portrayed as a heartless adolescent satyr, while his lifelong mistress Anne d'Heilly is portrayed as nothing less than a vicious and uncouth streetwalker. (She was said to be one of the most educated and politically skilled women at this Court.) Henry is an eternally angry man, with an obsessive preoccupation with Diane. While there is a kernel of historical truth in all these characterizations, Haeger makes them all so one-sided that there is little room for the complexities of personality that we know they had.
Enjoy this novel, historical fiction fans. I did, all its faults notwithstanding. It is enjoyable and entertaining, but not a keeper. Definitely a book of very light reading, to be donated to the next library book fair.
Book Review: Memorable and Marvelous
Summary: 4 Stars
What a terrific book! I can hardly believe this is by the same author who wrote the totally mediocre "Ruby Ring." Apparently Haeger is much more at home in 16th-century France than in Renaissance Italy. The book is worth reading just for the gorgeous descriptions of castles, clothing and furniture!
But it's much more than just a catalogue of everything the aristocrats had that the lower classes did not. The endless, complicated intrigues, betrayals and jockeying for favor and power that went on at the French court are brilliantly and absorbingly narrated. The main characters are each explored in detail, with a psychological insight not often found in historical fiction. Although I LOATHED Catherine de' Medici-- she must be one of the most vicious women who ever lived, and this is BEFORE her involvement in the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of French Protestants-- Haeger makes a real attempt to show the deep unhappiness, humiliations and disappointments that lay behind Catherine's horrible and cruel behavior. The same with King Francois I's mistress, Anne d'Heilly: Haeger makes her another monster of cruelty, but also shows the insecurity of her position as the king's "favourite," and her growing desperation as the king's health fails and she realizes that her own fall is inevitable.
I was not bothered at all by Henri's young age when he first becomes involved with Diane. That was an era when girls were often married off at 13 to men more than twice their age, so why shouldn't a youth of 14 have an affair with a woman more than twice HIS age? Think of Lorenzo de' Medici, who had a mistress when he was 16 (admittedly she was only 3 years, and not 16 years, his senior); presumably he had a bit of practice in previous years, no doubt with Florentine courtesans ten or more years older than him.) People were considered grown up at a much younger age in past centuries.
My one complaint is that the author makes Diane de Poitiers just a bit too good to be true. In Haeger's portrayal, the woman not only preserves her beauty intact into late middle age, but also seems never to have had a single moment in her life when her behavior was less than noble and perfect. That can get wearing, especially as everyone around her, including Henri, the love of her life, has human failings and moments of weakness.