Milady
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From the glittering ballrooms of 17th Century England to the dangerous intrigues of the French court, Laura L. Sullivan brings an unlikely heroine to the page, turning on its head everything we’ve been told about The Three Musketeers and their ultimate rival.
I’ve gone by many names, though you most likely know me as Milady de Winter: Villainess. Seductress. A secondary player in someone else’s tale.
It’s finally time I tell my own story. The truth isn’t tidy or convenient, but it’s certainly more interesting.
Before you cast judgment, let me start at the beginning, and you shall learn how an innocent girl from the countryside became the most feared woman in all of Europe.
Because we all know history was written by men, and they so often get things wrong.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sullivan (Girl About Town) cleverly reveals the untold story behind the Three Musketeers' most notorious foe, the cunning Milady de Winter, in a novel best suited to those already familiar with the work of Alexandre Dumas. Milady starts her life as Clarice, the sheltered daughter of a Frenchwoman and a lecherous English baron in the early 17th century. She gradually learns the delicate arts of healing, murder, and concealment. A disturbing encounter with her long-absent father thrusts Clarice into the sticky web of deceit that is the court of King James I of England, leading her into the crosshairs of manipulative lovers and ardent clerics who will shape the remaining years of her life. This companion story is most effective when it blazes its own narrative path, sketching out the period before a world-weary Milady encounters D'Artagnan and his beloved Musketeers at the scene of a duel. It is less effective, however, where Sullivan's storytelling meets that of Dumas's. Sullivan weaves a tale of suffering, survival, and intrigue that will entertain ardent Three Musketeers enthusiasts, but it's likely to leave casual fans or newcomers grasping for context.
