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Mistress Shakespeare

A Novel

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Mistress Shakespeare

By: Karen Harper
Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
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About this listen

 In Mistress Shakespeare, Elizabethan beauty Anne Whateley reveals intimate details of her dangerous, daring life and her great love, William Shakespeare.

As historical records show, Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton is betrothed to Will just days before he is forced to wed the pregnant Anne Hathaway of Shottery. The clandestine Whateley/Shakespeare match is a meeting of hearts and heads that no one - not even Queen Elizabeth or her spymasters - can destroy. From rural Stratford-upon-Avon to teeming London, the passionate pair struggles to stay solvent and remain safe from Elizabeth I's campaign to hunt down secret Catholics, of whom Shakespeare is rumored to be a part.

Often at odds, always in love, the couple sells Will's first plays and, as he climbs to theatrical power in Elizabeth's England, they fend off fierce competition from rival London dramatists, ones as treacherous as they are talented. Persecution and plague, insurrection and inferno, friends and foes, even executions of those they hold dear, bring Anne's heartrending story to life.

Spanning half a century of Elizabethan and Jacobean history and sweeping from the lowest reaches of society to the royal court, this richly textured novel tells the real story of Shakespeare in love.

©2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc. (P)2009 Brilliance Audio, Inc. Biographical Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction England Shakespeare Royalty Heartfelt Middle Ages
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As I live in Shakespeare's country, I found the local name dropping quite fun, but it bothered me as to which was history and which was fiction. There is no doubt that the author is quite an historian, especially the time of the first Elizabeth. That in itself produces a good yarn. As a whole I enjoyed it.

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