Words fail me

[oursin]

Poster in underground spotted, promoting a new novel The Scandalous Duchess*.

Why am I AAAAARRRRGH about this?

Because Anya Seton's Katherine was a major thing in my teenage years and my Canonical Version of the story. (And appears to be still in print, available on Kindle, etc, so not A Forgotten Classic.)

Reading the blurb at Amazon does not reassure me.

We also note that the actual title has been ripped off from a rather more srs bznz bio of Katherine by Alison Weir, which came out in 2007.

Very tempted to add Kenneth Williams going 'Infamy!!!' to this post as well.

*Honestly, this title makes me think 'Regency bodice-ripper'.

Comments

[movingfinger]

It sounds like only half a title, in that marvelous tradition of The A X's B Y.

The Scandalous Duchess's Greek Tycoon

The Scandalous Duchess's Secret Accountant

The Scandalous Duchess's Indiscreet Duke

And so on, and so on...

[msilverstar]

I remember that book, I think I read it five times! It was so good with the ridiculous twists of real history.

[ookpik]

I also loved the Anya Seton version of the story, and the Alison Weir is on my to-be-read shelf.
This new one looks dreadful. (And all the "if you liked this, you'll like that" recommendations equally so, or worse.)

[violsva]

That really does sound far too much like ten different romance novels.

[wordweaverlynn]

I loved the Anya Seton version, too. I even enjoyed the Susan Howatch updating of the story (The Wheel of Fortune). I don't know about the content of this novel, but my God, the copywriting is dreadful.