Changes to the Royal Mistress Challenge for 2011

I had so much fun running the challenge this year that I’m bringing it back for 2011. Not least because I still want to read all the royal mistress titles I didn’t get to this year! Above is the brand new button – feel free to grab it.

You can read the rules and sign up here. In 2011 there will be five categories:

1. Novels about real, historical mistresses and favourites of royalty (either kings or junior royals), such as Nell Gwynn, mistress of Charles II, or Piers Gaveston, favourite of Edward II. Complete list here.
2. Novels about fictional favourites of royalty, such as Amber St Clare, fictional mistress of Charles II, heroine of Kathleen Winsor’s Forever Amber.
3. Non-fiction about royal mistresses and favourites.
4. Other media: films, documentaries, TV or radio programs on the subject of royal favourites.
5. Works by mistresses and favourites (books, letters, memoirs…)

In the weeks to come I’ll be posting about:

• royal mistress books to be published in 2011
• suggestions for novels about historical royal mistresses
• suggestions for novels about fictional royal mistresses
• suggestions for non-fiction about royal mistresses

The big change for 2011 is the inclusion of fictional mistresses, and to celebrate it, I chose for the button an image of one of the most famous fictional mistresses, Angélique of the series by Sergeanne Golon [Anne and Serge Golon], who has a few close encounters with Louis XIV. The image for the button was scanned from my own rather battered copy of the 1950s Pan paperback of Angelique and the Road to Versailles – here’s a link to a much better quality image.

What interests me, now I come to think of it, is how much the 1950s Angelique resembled the Wakefield twins of the infamous Sweet Valley YA series, at least how they were depicted by cover artist Jimmy Mathewuse:

Image from The Closet

Jessica Wakefield, royal mistress? It wouldn’t surprise me.

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RULES AND SIGN-UP

LIST OF NOVELS ABOUT HISTORICAL ROYAL MISTRESSES

The New Year’s Day Post: 2010 Challenges

My own Royal Mistress Challenge is already underway.  If you know of any royal mistress or favourite books which meet the terms of the challenge, or if you would like me to link to your review of any of the books mentioned, do leave a comment or drop me an email.  The next book I will be reading for this challenge is Elizabeth Chadwick’s The Time of Singing – based on the true story of Ida de Tosney, mistress to Henry II.

Which fits in nicely with Historical Tapestry’s The Alphabet in Historical Fiction Challenge, which has now reached the letter C.

This is another challenge I’m very much enjoying.  I plan to break the rules a little for the letter D!

The idea of this challenge is to read and review 12 historical novels in 2010, one per month.  It can overlap with other challenges (I wouldn’t sign up to a challenge that didn’t!) so The Time of Singing will count.  Other books which may count towards this challenge are:

2. Henry Esmond by Thackeray.  Classic historical set in the time of Queen Anne – been planning to read this for ages and haven’t got round to it.

3. The Captive Queen by Alison Weir.  One of the many Eleanor of Aquitaine-themed novels to be released in 2010.  I enjoyed Weir’s Innocent Traitor and definitely want to take a look at this.

4. The Queen’s Pawn by Christy English.  Another Eleanor book, this one also features Princess Alais, alleged to have been a mistress of Henry II – so this is another Royal Mistress Challenge book.

5. To Defy A King by Elizabeth Chadwick.  The story of Mahelt, daughter of William Marshal.  This book (released May 2010) has the most gorgeous cover:

6. The Stolen Crown by Susan Higginbotham.  The Wars of the Roses from the point of view of Katherine Woodville, sister of Edward IV’s Queen.

8. The Confessions of Catherine de Medici by C.W. Gortner.  Looking forward to this as The Last Queen made my Best of 2009.

9, 10, 11. Sharon Kay Penman’s 12th century trilogy: While Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance and The Devil’s Brood.

12. Sarah A. Hoyt, No Will but His: A Novel of Catherine Howard.

The goal is to read, watch or listen to at least three Bronte-related items.  The ones I have in mind are:

1. Emma Brown by Clare Boylan.  Charlotte Bronte’s unfinished novel Emma is a fascinating fragment – I’d be most curious to see how Clare Boylan finished it off.

2. Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys.  The story of Mr Rochester’s first wife, Bertha. Been meaning to read this one for ages.

3. 1944 film of Jane Eyre.

I’m joining Our Mutual Read at level 1 – read 4 books, at least two written between 1837-1901.  The other two may be neo-Victorian or non-fiction.

I love Victorian novels and try to read some every year, so probably all mine will be Victorian.  The ones I have in mind are:

1. Pendennis by Thackeray.  Got halfway through this in 2009 and really hope to get to the finish post in 2010!  Once I’ve finished this I want to go on to The Newcomes.

2. Little Dorrit by Dickens.  Again, got halfway through and stalled.  Really want to finish it.

3. Dombey and Son by Dickens.  Yes, same story!  Have to get this out the library and try again.

4. Something French.  Could be Au Bonheur des Dames by Zola, or Le pere Goriot by Balzac, or Une vieille maitresse by Jules Amedee Barbey d’Aurevilly.  Or something completely different.

As a writer of time travel stories, I couldn’t miss this one out!  I’m going to try to read three:

1. Hangin’ out with Cici by Francine Pascal.  1970s girl goes back to the 1940s and meets her mother.

2. The House on the Strand by Daphne du Maurier.

3. At the moment I’m thinking Cross Stitch by Diana Gabaldon.  Might change my mind.  Recommendations welcome!

And last but not least:

I’m going for the highest level – King.  I have to read nine books from 500-1500, at least two from each challenge genre: medieval literature, history and historical fiction.

Ambitious, but I’m not worried.  My new writing project is set in the thirteenth century so I’ll be reading a good deal of medieval stuff this year.  These are my thoughts on the challenge genres:

1. Historical fiction – probably the easiest as plenty of the historical novels I am planning on reading this year are medievals.

2. History - right now I have Eleanor of Aquitaine, Lord and Lady out from the library, as well as an art history book, The Medieval Art of Love, by Michael Camille.  Looking out for Magna Carta and the England of King John, edited by Janet S. Loengard, which comes out in June.

3. Medieval literature – I currently have an edition of The Book of the Knight of the Tower, a 1372 conduct book, out from the library.  I expect to be reading several of the twelfth and thirteenth century chroniclers at some point.

My Challenge Philosophy

I don’t think it matters whether I complete these challenges or not.  For me the point is simply to discover new books and if I finish just one book I wouldn’t otherwise have tried, I’ll be satisfied.  I like to make things easy on myself so a sub-challenge for me will be: how many challenges can one book count for?

I’m going to be organising my challenge posts through the categories listed in the sidebar.  There is a Challenges category and each challenge will have its own sub-category.  And of course, plenty of posts will be in more than one category.  So what I’m saying is, the category list will probably be the easiest place to find them.

The Challenges that Got Away

There are so many wonderful challenges and I’d like to sign up for them all, but I have to be realistic.  These were the ones which got away:

I love this idea but the lowest level is five Tudor-related books and I don’t think I’ll be reading that many this year, although I have in other years.

Love the idea of this one too – the idea is to read at least three books of 450 pages or more – and I may yet sign up for it as the challenge doesn’t begin until February and several of the books I have in mind for this year are long ones.  Wish I’d known about it in 2009 when I was reading all the Susan Howatch sagas and Wilkie Collins tomes!

This challenge ends today!  But I will be using the suggestion list to inspire my 2010 reading and viewing.

And for anyone who’s still got an appetite, Historical Tapestry have a great roundup of 2010 historical fiction challenges.

What Else I’ll Be Reading in 2010

1. Some classics other than Victorian books, preferably eighteenth century.  I like eighteenth century Gothic fiction and try to read some every year – in 2009 I read Ann Radcliffe’s The Romance of the Forest.  I read Clarissa by Samuel Richardson a couple of years ago and I’d quite like to read Pamela this year.  Does anyone know of an eighteenth century or Gothic fiction challenge?
2. Some French-language books – contemporary as well as classics.  Last year I read books by Zola and Colette.
3. Some twentieth-century classics.  Wide Sargasso Sea would fall into this category.  I also like reading vintage detective stories – have read most of Dorothy L. Sayers and would like to branch out a bit.
4. Some YA fiction.  Last year it was Stephenie Meyer and Meg Cabot.
5. Children’s fiction – especially classics I missed growing up. I’m reading The Box of Delights by John Masefield at the moment.
6. Some contemporary genre fiction – thrillers, crime, women’s fiction.  I’ve never read any Michael Crichton – this might be the year for it.  I’ve also got some Penny Vincenzis on the TBR pile.
7. Some literary fiction – either in French or English. In 2009 I read The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch with a book group.

January Readalongs

I’ve signed up for two readalongs.

This starts with The Hobbit in January.  I’ve read and re-read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings many many times so looking forward very much to the discussion.

The Literary Stew and Bookheaper are hosting a group read of The Greengage Summer by Rumer Godden next week.  I’ve got this one from the library but I’m still in the middle of The Box of Delights so I might have to break off to read this.  It’ll be a refreshing change to read a summery book after all the snow and Christmassy stuff!

Tuesday Teaser: Love and Louis XIV, by Antonia Fraser

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This week’s Tuesday Teaser is: Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King, by Antonia Fraser.

In black velvet edged with fur, including a matching hat above the huge dark eyes which were her best feature, she was irresistible.  It was certainly not a coincidence that the King’s early loves were all superb equestriennes, able to outdistance the court if necessary, since riding in the forests and glades round the various royal chateaux represented some of the few opportunities for privacy that Louis had.

Royal Mistress Challenge: the allure of the mistress

Photo by John Cunliffe for Abigails Ateliers. All rights reserved.

When I began collecting the titles of novels for the Royal Mistress Challenge, I realised that this amounts to a sub-genre in itself. What is the perennial allure of the mistress? I think it comes down to five things:

1. Beauty
2. Power
3. Money
4. Sex
4. Mystery

Beauty first. We like reading about beautiful people, otherwise People magazine would go out of business pretty darn quick.  Mistresses were nearly always renowned for their beauty; the few who weren’t, like Mlle Choin, the mistress/secret wife of the Grand Dauphin, Louis XIV’s son, don’t tend to get written about very much.

Power. Mistresses and favourites were hated figures, because they were blamed for the poor decisions made by the king.  One of the reasons Marie Antoinette was so unpopular for much of her husband’s reign was that he did not have a mistress, so when things went wrong, there was no-one to blame but her.

How much power the mistress actually had varied.  In the medieval period the mistress was a shadowy figure, there for the king’s convenience, and baronial families objected to their daughters being ‘despoiled’ by the king.  By 1500 the mistress was emerging as a power player, and during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries families backed potential mistresses like political candidates.  In return they expected their piece of the pie.  And that leads us on to:

Money. The early modern period was the heyday of the mistress, who, in addition to houses, jewels and art, gathered land, money, offices, privileges and pensions and redistributed them to supporters and relatives.  By the nineteenth century, with the decline of royal autonomy, the mistress was less rapacious, but still enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle.

Sex. By definition, a mistress is desirable.  We like reading about desirable people.  Otherwise InStyle magazine would go out of business pretty darn quick.  An aura of exciting sex hangs around the mistress.  Whether she was enjoying all this sex as much as the king is another matter, which merits further discussion.  When she was having sex with the king, that was.  Anne Boleyn held Henry VIII off for six years because she didn’t want a hit-and-run romance like the one he had with her sister Mary.  Madame de Pompadour made the transition from mistress to best friend and confidante of Louis XV without losing any of her influence over him.

Mystery. The mistress might be a public figure, but unlike her counterpart, the queen, she was not constantly on display.  She wasn’t crowned, she didn’t eat in public or have crowds of people trooping through her apartment.  Often surprisingly little is known about her relationship with the king.  While sources abound for the reign of Louis XIV – we know what he was doing every day for much of the time – almost no letters survive between him and his mistresses, none of whom wrote their memoirs.

And maybe there’s an X-factor that defies analysis.  One thing is certain: looking at reviews of royal mistress novels, a theme quickly emerges.  Major Mary Suedom.  Wikipedia is pretty good on popular culture, so I’ll leave the definition of a Mary Sue to them:

A Mary Sue (sometimes just Sue), in literary criticism and particularly in fanfiction, is a fictional character with overly idealized and hackneyed mannerisms, lacking noteworthy flaws, and primarily functioning as wish-fulfillment fantasies for their authors or readers.

And so I decided that the heroine of every one of these novels I read, and I mean every one, will have to undergo that most dreaded ordeal of any fictional character.

Yes.  You know what I’m talking about.

The Mary Sue Litmus Test.

Anyway.  Having decided this, Moppet felt she’d better put her own house in order before she started calling other people’s characters Mary Sues.  I.e.: make her own alter ego, Lady Moppet of Yorkshire, take the Mary Sue Litmus Test.

The phrase ‘alter ego’ should give everyone a clue that there was never much hope that Lady Moppet wasn’t a Mary Sue.  But there’s always some hope.  Isn’t there?

So, first, Miss Moppet did the Writers’ Mary Sue Test (squeaking with laughter all the way through).  The results:

Lady Moppet of Yorkshire isn’t a character: she’s you, or you as you’d like to be. She isn’t really very cool: she blends into crowds, she hangs out on the fringes at parties, and wearing shades after dark makes her run into things. She may have sometimes thought that she was special, or destined for greater things, but probably dismissed the idea as a fantasy. She’s come in for her share of hurt, but gotten off with minor damage. And you’ve been sparing with the free handouts: whatever she gains, she’s worked for.

You may have let yourself get a little too close to Lady Moppet of Yorkshire. Maybe she’s you as you wish you were, or maybe you’re just afraid no one will like her and are trying to give her a free ride. Have some confidence in your writing! Lady Moppet of Yorkshire is a good character. Give her room to be herself before you stifle her.

I’m not going to use this test for the Royal Mistress Challenge novels because there are too many questions that only the writer can answer, such as ‘do you frequently fantasise about being your character?’  I could have a guess, but it hardly seems fair.

So Miss Moppet found another test, The Original Fiction Mary-Sue Litmus Test.  And did the test again.  Hoping that maybe this one might come out differently!  The way you re-read Gone with the Wind!  Hoping that this time, everything will be okay!

And you were expecting?  She is a royal mistress, after all.

Coming very soon: The Royal Mistress Challenge

The idea behind this is simply to read books which dramatize the life of a royal mistress or favourite.  I’ve got a pretty long list already and I’m making a page for it.  There is one, however, which I won’t be including, and if you take a look at the cover, you’ll see why:

No, it’s not a joke, you can buy it on Amazon.  Click on the image if you don’t believe me.