So I'm doing an ISU for Grade 12 University-Prep English. The guidline is to read two books with one theme or one concept in common. I'm reading Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier http://www.tchevalier.com/gwape/ I was thinking about doing another historical fiction, where the main character is associated with an actual historical figure (this book is about the famous painter Vermeer's maid). I was thinking about reading Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard by Richard B. Wright, but I'm not quite feeling it. Basically, I want to know if you know of a historical fiction novel about someone who works for/has an affair with an actual historical figure. Why? I want my final essay to be on historical fiction, and it's significance, and this way my two books would have similar themes. Thank you SO much! xx
Axel von Fersen and Marie Antoinette? * Farr, Evelyn. Marie Antoinette & Count Fersen: The Untold Love Story. Peter Owen Ltd., 1996. * Fraser, Antonia. Marie Antoinette: The Journey. Anchor, 2002. * Goodman, Dena and Kaiser, Thomas. Marie Antoinette: Writings on the Body of a Queen. Routledge, 2003. * Haslip, Joan. Marie Antoinette. Grove, 1988. * Loomis, Stanley. The Fatal Friendship: Marie Antoinette, Count Fersen and the Flight to Varennes. Davis-Poynter, Ltd., 1972. * Von Fersen, Hans Axel. Diary and Correspondence of Axel von Fersen, Grand Marshal of Sweden Relating to the Court of France. Adamant Media Corporation, 2001. * Zweig, Stefan. Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, Translators. Grove Press, 2002.
Mrs Shakespeare is based on the curious instruction that Anne Hathaway (his wife) be given his second best bed. She travels to London and more or less becomes his mistress for a short time in the first best bed. The indication is that Shakespeare has another real male lover who is probably his patron. Persian Boy - is about a Eunch/slave of Alexander the Great - they have an affair Her Royal Destiny takes Katharine Parr from her childhood home to marry Edward Borough, then through her other marriages to her daughter's birth and her own death.
