My Theodosia

My Theodosia

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

Theodosia's father is Aaron Burr--Thomas Jefferson's vice president, most famous for his great duel with Alexander Hamilton. With charm and tenderness, he holds sway over young Theodosia's heart, but his arrogance forces her to choose between the man he insists she marry and her love for a young soldier who will turn out to play a decisive role in her father's fate. Persuaded by Aaron that she will soon be crowned princess of the Kingdom of Mexico as a result of his treasonable plans, she is received like royalty on Blennerhassett Island, only to end up trying to exonerate him as he awaits trial in a Richmond jail, repudiated by his fickle son-in-law and friends.
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The Hearth and Eagle

The Hearth and Eagle

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

This is not only the story of Marblehead, from its earliest settlement to the present, and of a family who settled and stayed there in the Hearth and Eagle Inn; it is also the story of Hesper Honeywood, a passionate young woman whose long and dramatic life, full of triumph and tragedy, contained the history of both. In one of her most ambitious novels, Anya Seton here created one of her most memorable heroines, and one of her most varied tales.
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Dragonwyck

Dragonwyck

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

First published in 1944, Dragonwyck was a national bestseller that was made into a major motion picture starring Gene Tierney and Vincent Price in 1946. A classic gothic romance, the story features an 18-year-old Miranda Wells who falls under the spell of a mysterious old mansion and its equally fascinating master. Tired of churning butter, weeding the garden patch, and receiving the dull young farmers who seek her hand in marriage, Miranda is excited by an invitation from the upstate New York estate of her distant relative, the intriguing Nicholas Van Ryn. Her passion is kindled by the icy fire of Nicholas, the last of the Van Ryns, and the luxury of Dragonwyck, and a way of life of which she has only dreamed. Dressed in satin and lace, she becomes part of Dragonwyck, with its Gothic towers, flowering gardens, acres of tenant farms, and dark, terrible secrets. This compelling novel paints a marvelous portrait of a country torn between freedom and feudal traditions; a country divided between the very wealthy and the very poor. Poor tenant farmers at Dragonwyck, the European royalty who visit, and American icons such as Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, and the Astors are vividly brought to life. This is a heart-stopping story of a remarkable woman, her breathtaking passions, and the mystery and terror that await her in the magnificent hallways of Dragonwyck.
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Foxfire

Foxfire

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

Golden girl: that was Amanda. Born into luxury, she was pampered, adored, spoiled, and very beautiful. She could have had any man she wanted. Millionaire Tom Merrill had been in love with her for years. But she chose Dart, tall, handsome, mining engineer. He was half-Indian, proud, and very poor. Amanda had no idea what to expect as Dart's wife, an eastern stranger in the bleak little town of Lodestone, Arizona. But she found out soon enough. The people in the town hated her. And she hated the mines. Then one day Amanda saw a chance to get away from all this - a chance to become rich beyond her dreams. The promise of gold which had driven many to madness now enslaved her. And she was willing to risk her life - and Dart's - to gain it. (from the back cover of the 1976 Fawcett edition)
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Avalon

Avalon

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

This saga of yearning and mystery travels across oceans and continents to Iceland, Greenland, and North America during the time in history when Anglo-Saxons battled Vikings and the Norsemen discovered America. The marked contrasts between powerful royalty, landless peasants, Viking warriors and noble knights are expertly brought to life in this gripping tale of the French prince named Rumon. Shipwrecked off the Cornish coast on his quest to find King Arthur's legendary Avalon, Rumon meets a lonely girl named Merewyn and their lives soon become intertwined. Rumon brings Merewyn to England, but once there he is so dazzled by Queen Alrida's beauty that it makes him a virtual prisoner to her will. In this riveting romance, Anya Seton once again proves her mastery of historical detail and ability to craft a compelling tale that includes real and colorful personalities such as St. Dunstan and Eric the Red.
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The Mistletoe and the Sword: A Story of Roman Britain

The Mistletoe and the Sword: A Story of Roman Britain

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

From a fascinating corner of history, comes a thrilling story of England in the time of the Romans. Quintus Tullius, a young standard bearer for the Ninth Roman legion, vows to properly bury his grandfather who had been killed by the Druids. In the strange foreign country of the Britons, Quintus meets lovely Regan, the mysterious foster daughter of the Warrior Queen of the Iceanians. Once, he saves her, and then in a daring scene, she rescues him. They are at once bound into history in a time of magic and mystery.
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Katherine

Katherine

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

This classic romance novel tells the true story of the love affair that changed history—that of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the ancestors of most of the British royal family. Set in the vibrant 14th century of Chaucer and the Black Death, the story features knights fighting in battle, serfs struggling in poverty, and the magnificent Plantagenets—Edward III, the Black Prince, and Richard II—who ruled despotically over a court rotten with intrigue. Within this era of danger and romance, John of Gaunt, the king’s son, falls passionately in love with the already married Katherine. Their well-documented affair and love persist through decades of war, adultery, murder, loneliness, and redemption. This epic novel of conflict, cruelty, and untamable love has become a classic since its first publication in 1954.
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Devil Water

Devil Water

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

DEVIL WATER is the true story of Charles Radcliffe, who escaped from Newgate prison in 1715 after his brother's execution, and of his daughter Jenny. Jenny was the child of a secret marriage; father and daughter share a strong and abiding affection. When Jenny immigrates to America, she and her father suffer years of separation. The themes of this book are loyalty and courage. Like all of Seton's books, this one combines thoroughly documented history with superb storytelling.
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The Turquoise

The Turquoise

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

It is the story of a beautiful, gifted woman who leaves the magic mountains of her native New Mexico for the piratical, opulent, gaslit New York of the 1870s—only to end her search for happiness back in the high, thin air of Santa Fe. Santa Fe Cameron, named for the place of her birth, was the child of a Spanish mother and a Scotch father and inherited from both a high degree of psychic perceptivity. Natanay, an American Indian, saw this and gave the little orphan a turquoise amulet as a keepsake; this turquoise, the Indian symbol of the spirit, dominates her life. For Santa Fe Cameron, life is made up of violent contrasts: the rough wagon of the gay young Irish medicine vendor who brings her East and the scented hansom cabs and carriages waiting before her own Fifth Avenue mansion; the glittering world of the Astors and a dreary cell in the Tombs. All the color, excitement, and rich period detail which distinguish Anya Seton’s novels are here, together with one of her most unusual heroines.
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The Winthrop Woman

The Winthrop Woman

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

In 1631 Elizabeth Winthrop, newly widowed with an infant daughter, set sail for the New World. In those days of hardship, famine, and Indian attack, there was only one way, in the minds of the governors of the Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies, to hold together the sanity and identity of the colonists. That was through a strong and bigoted, theocratic government.It is against this background of rigidity and conformity that Bess Winthrop dared to befriend Anne Hutchinson at the moment of her banishment from the Bay Colony; dared to challenge a determined army captain bent on the massacre of her friends the Siwanoy Indians; and, above all, dared to love a man as her heart and her whole being commanded. And so, as a response to this almost unmatched courage and vitality, Governor John Winthrop came to refer to this woman in the historical records of the time as his "unregenerate niece." Anya Seton's riveting historical novel portrays the fortitude, humiliation, and...
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Green Darkness

Green Darkness

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

“The theme of this book is reincarnation, an attempt to show the interplay—the law of cause and effect, good and evil, among certain individual souls in two periods of English history.” Green Darkness is the story of a great love, a love in which mysticism, suspense, and mystery form a web of good and evil forces that stretches from Tudor England to the England of the twentieth century. The marriage of the Englishman Richard Marsdon and his young American wife, Celia, slowly turns tragic as Richard withdraws into himself and Celia suffers a debilitating emotional breakdown. A wise mystic realizes that Celia can escape her past only by reliving it. She journeys back four hundred years to her former life as the servant girl Celia de Bohun during the reign of Edward VI—and to her doomed love affair with the chaplain Stephen Marsdon. Although Celia and Stephen can’t escape the horrifying consequences of their love, fate (and time) offer them another chance for redemption.
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The Mistletoe and the Sword

The Mistletoe and the Sword

Anya Seton

Literature & Fiction

Ancient Romance From a fascinating corner of history, comes A thrilling story of England in the time of the Romans. "Quintus Tullius, a young standard bearer, for the Ninth Roman Legion, vows to properly bury his grandfather who had been killed bythe Druids.In the strange foreign country of the Britons, Quintus meets lovely Regan, the mysterious foster daughter of the Warrior Queen of the Iceanians. Once, he saves her, and then in a daring scene, she rescues him. They are at once bound into history in a time of magic and mystery. With all the sense of drama and colour which made GREEN DARKNESS and KATHERINE major bestsellers, Anya Seton again enthrals the reader with a story to be long remembered.
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