Catherine - the first Besteller by Juliette Benzoni 
website approved by Juliette Benzoni in 2009
 

 

Catherine Legoix, daughter of a Parisian goldsmith in the time  of the hundred  Years War,is the victim of a hopeless passion  for Arnaud de Montsalvy, prominent member of the Armagnac  aristoracy, although she herself a favourite of the the Duke of Burgundy, Philippe le Bon. He has arranged her marriage to his wealthy Treasurer, Garin de Brazey, and every force in the troubled times in which they live: hatred, war, vengeance; drives Catherine and Philippe together, keeps her and Arnaud apart.

But Catherine defies the gulf which seperates Armagnac and Burgundian and, driven by the blind love, she travels the roads of France and Burgundy: from Dijon to Bruges, then to the beleaqured city of Orléans, where Arnaud de Montsalvy is among the defending corps. There her path crosses that of the Maid herself, Joan of Arc - and later she encounters an enemy from her childhood, the so-called "Butcher of Rouen"... Bishop Pierre Cauchon alias Bishop of Beavais.
'There is more sense in the flight of a blind bird than in a woman's hear.' Catherine's friend and adviser, the Moorish physician Abou-al-Khayr, once said to her. Through fire and water, hardship and every brutality of a country ravaged by war, Catherine pursues her destined course.  

The story opens as Catherine awakens in a small boat hidden in a narrow creek. The day before she and Arnaud de Montsalvy had narrowly escaped death for their part in a plot to rescue Jeanne d'Arc; now as the sun comes up, Catherine realizes that Arnaud has disappeared. Determinded to find him and spend the rest of her life at his side, Catherine seeks Arnaud through a France still torn by the ravages of the Hundred Years War.

She is in constant danger from the English soldiery; threatened, in the city of Chartres by the terrible Black Death; imprisoned in Gilles de Rais ghastly "Bluebeard's Castle and forced to witness the barbaric hunting down of her giant servant Gauthier.
At last, Catherine and Arnaud are reunited - and she becomes the Countess of Montsalvy. To her and Arnaud's immense joy - she gives birth to their son "Michel" called after his uncle Michel de Montsalvy.
But already the sky darkens - they arrive at Montsalvy where they find Arnaud's noble castle in ruins - by the order of King Charles VII. Instead of happiness - together with her beloved husband there is now only grief and deep sorrow in store for...

Catherine, now the Comtesse de Montsalvy, struggles to restore her husbands name to it's fromer glory. The Château of Montsalvy has been razed to the ground in the name of King Charles VII. Arnaud himself has been torn from his wife and child, stricken by the ravages of leprosy.France, devasted by the Hundred Years War, is no place for travellers.

Yet Catherine disregards every hazard to join those noble men who are planing the downfall of La Trémoille, the arch-enemy of her cause and of her country.

Success or failure depend upon her and she risks her life in the exotic and daring role which she must play.In the squalor of a gypsy camp, in the splendour of Charles VII's Court, Catherine's courage and exqusite beauty inspire loyalty and passionate love - never forgetting the one man she loves...

Catherine's destiny is to love Arnaud, the proud Lord of Montsalvy, in mediveal France. Once she believed him lost to her through the ravages of leprosy; now she suspects that the bonds which unite them have been torn even more surely by the lascivious caresses of an infidel Princess. Yet her one desire is to be near him again; to show him once more the strenght of her own passion.

Her quest for him takes her across harsch mountain wildernesses to the brilliant city of Burgos - where the cage of death swings from the cathedral parapets - and finally, to the famed city of Granada whose soft Eastern beauty is shattered by violence. The gates of the harem in the Caliph's palace close silently behind Catherine, and she must stand alone against the crazy jealousy of Princess Zobeïda, to fight for Arnaud and win him back...

As Arnaud, the Lord of Montsalvy, rode off proudly one frosty morning  on his black charger, accompanied by his knights, and made for Paris and its liberation from the English, he felt intoxicated by the prospect of the battle to come. Neither he nor Catherine, ever imagined that soon Catherine would face far harder struggles alone. Knowing that Arnaud has left, a band of routiers, the Achpiers, besiege the castle with ruthless determination. Although the town manages to hold off the attack, the lady of Montsalvy, finds she has to reckon with the cunning of Bérault d'Apchier. When he sends one of his sons to Arnaud in Paris falsely to accuse Catherine of adultery and betrayal, Catherine knows that to save her marriage - she must escape from Montsalvy and go to Paris herself.

Catherine's all-consuming passion for Arnaud carries her on against every adversity, every desperate setback. Her love for him is tested to the limits as she confronts the atrocities of war, torture and despair and... Arnaud's part in them...

The Lady of Montsalvy - Telos Publishing 2021 first time translated into English...
translated by Linda Compagnoni Walther & Stephen James Walker
Artwork : Martin Baines / Cover design David J Howe
avaiable in Book & Kindle form

The only English Catherine Novel who has a written Note by the late author J'uliette Benzoni' to her English Readers.

In this final book of the series... Catherine not only has to face fear, murder and the horror of war..., but also an unfair trap, which separates her from her beloved husband Arnaud de Montsalvy. She has to abandon him, seriously wounded, in the camp of the Damoiseau de Commercy. She finds refuge in the castle of her friend the Countess Ermengarde in Châteauvillain. The castle is besieged by the Damoiseau de Commercy, Robert de Saarebrück.

During her long hours of helplessness, she reflects on this avalanche of events - it is undoubtedly the cruelest she has experienced so far. The attackers suddenly disappear, leaving behind fire and blood. Catherine begins a new life, following a difficult road in the hope of victory and happiness. She desperately wants to return home to Montsalvy. She longs to see her lovely children - from whom she has had no news for months - and to be reunited with Arnaud, whom she still loves despite everything that happened the last time they met.
But the journey will be long and difficult. King René of Anjou has been taken prisoner by Duke Philippe of Burgundy. On her way to Dijon to rescue King René (and give him the letter she brings on behalf of Queen Yolande, his mother) she falls into a terrible trap set by the despicable Robert of Saarebrück.

To escape her despair, Catherine, escorted by her faithful page Béranger and her squire Gauthier de Chazay, will divert her route to unexpected horizons - Lorraine, Luxembourg and Flanders. There she met Duke Philippe of Burgundy, who still loved Catherine.
After a long and difficult recovery, she is eager to return home at last, to her children, her vassals in the mountains of Auvergne... but what will await her there?

Juliette Benzoni's Catherine de Montsalvy. 
 
This magnificent painting called « Madonna in the Church » by the flemish painter Jean Van Eyck, had been Juliette's inspiration of how her Catherine would have looked like. We know this thanks to some articles and also because she has told us this during our first visit to Saint-Mandé.

'Madonna in the 'Church' or 'The Virgin in the Church' is a small oil panel. Probably executed between c. 1438–40. It is exhibited today in the Berlin/Germany Gemäldegalerie.

1963: Article translated from French by webmaster Linda.

Europe wants to read the Countess

This woman of letters, who signs at her press office, has every reason to smile : she has just accomplished a still unknown exploit in the literary annals. Indeed her first Novel, « Il suffit d’un amour… » was bought by nine foreign publishing houses even before its release in bookstores.
This is about the Countess Juliette Benzoni di Conza, wife of a senior officer of the French Army. A month ago she wrote the word « The end » at the bottom of a manuscript of 1,100 pages recounting the adventures of a girl of the people during the Hundred Years War.
She carried the story to Editions de Trévise, who accepted it straightaway and communicated it immediately to nine foreign Publishers. (Holland, England, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Finland, Spain and Turkey). The latter, enthusiastic, cabled their agreement at once.
Short notice : Mrs. Juliette Benzoni di Conza is not an unknown to our readers. She is the author of the historical evocation « Les Reines tragiques » , which L'Aurore is currently publishing as an illustrated serial.

1963: Original Advertisement seen in Paris at the shop windows of the Libraries back in 1962 - 1963, while the story of Catherine appeared in the newspaper France-soir daily in form of a Cliff-hanger. (souvenir of the late Juliette Benzoni)

1971: In Marianne and the Privateer, the author mentions her first heroine :  Catherine de Montsalvy !

The fire of the ancient blood of Auvergne and the unrelenting tenacity of her English descent united in her to produce all the warlike qualities of those other women from whose line she came who had studded history with their loves, their passions and their vengeances. Agnès de Ventadour, who had turned Crusader to be revenged on a faithless lover, Catherine de Montsalvy who had risked death a hundred times, for the husband she loved. Isabelle de Montsalvy, her daughter, who had fought her way to happiness through the horrors of the Wars of the Roses. Lucrèce de Gadagne wielding a sword like a man to win back her castle of Tourneol. Sidonia d'Asselnat who had fought like a man yet loved like a woman during the Fronde...

The above extract from an article 1972 the Romancière talks about the two upcoming sequels concerning the Catherine Saga which had ended in 1968 with Catherine and a Time for love - being the only Novel with an Epiloge! It was her aim to show her readers how life really was for women at the time of the 'Hundred Year War' !

Editions Trévise 1973

At the request of many readers of the 5 novels in the CATHERINE series, Juliette Benzoni, abandoning, very temporarily, the dazzling Marianne who leads her admirers into the splendours of the First Empire, continues the adventurous and passionate life of the Lady of Montsalvy and devotes a new volume to her: A Trap for Catherine.
 
Special detail...

... inside the cover for Piège pour Catherine we find this text:

'A beautiful and great novel, worthy of the one crowned this year by the Alexandre Dumas prize (1973) and of which  Alain Decaux writes:
« Yes, Juliette Benzoni is a born storyteller and a writer who resurrects history in a marvellous love novel »

'Piège pour Catherine', like her other works, will travel the world . 
Text by Opéra Mundi 1973

1974: Juliette meeting her readers at a bookstore, signing her two Bestsellers: CATHERINE & MARIANNE
photo © Anne Gallois

1990: And once again Juliette mentions 27 years later her first heroine Catherine de Montsalvy  (1963) in the Florentine series (Fiora et le Roi) which has alas not been translated so far into English !) She also dedicates the first volume to all those who read Catherine, Marianne and Le Gerfaut.

« To all those who loved Catherine, Marianne and the Lure of the Falcon ... With all my friendship Juliette Benzoni »



Extract from Fiora et le Roi - book 4
Text ranslated by Linda, webmaster

Tristan l'Hermite: 'I was only carrying out my duty young man, but I confess to being sensitive to friendship. Once... a long time ago, I devoted myself like you to the service of a beautiful Lady!'

Mortimer: 'You Milord? a Lady,' whispered Mortimer genuinley amazed.

Tristan l'Hermite: 'This takes you by surprise? The righter of wrongs, the master of the jailers, of the police, of executioners? Her name was Catherine de... but I assure you! It was not me whom she loved..'

2016 : Paris, 8 February 8
Extract from the above article in Point de Vue:

Juliette Benzoni - The Queen ist dead -  30.10.1920 - 07.02. 2016

Aldo Morosini, the Venetian prince, is in mourning. Fiora Beltrami confides her grief to Lorenzo the Magnificent, whose mistress she is. Marianne, the singer who was one of Naploleon I's loves, hides her grief in her estate in Lucca. Catherine, the first heroine, the one with whom everything began half a century ago, cries in her chamber in the donjon of Montsalvy. Her life in the Middle Ages was an epic, thanks to Juliette Benzoni who was her creator. As it was for Aldo, Marianne, Fiora and so many other heroes....

Since the announcement of her death, the Facebook page of her two greatest fans, Linda and Frédérique, has been flooded with comments, touching, laudatory of course, and sometimes poignant: How will I survive without her writing, her heroines? Life will no longer have the same flavour, adds another....

My beautiful letter by Vincent Meylan, journalist, author and personal friend of Juliette Benzoni for many years...

Dear Linda.
 I so understand how dreadful these days must have been for both of you. So many of us feel the loss of Juliette tonight. I know this is something very personal to say, but maybe it will help you a bit. I have decided a long time ago that I would never accept that someone is dead. I just live with it. I do not think people are ever dead. I keep dead people, which I love with me, always - this is quite easy to do in Juliette’s case. Yesterday evening I started reading again Catherine and I so love it. I am so thankful to Juliette for having written such amazing books, which always take me to a place I enjoy so much. Juliette is not gone. You just have to open one of her books to be close to her. Try it.

I remember so well the first time you came to see Juliette. She was a bit anxious. What do you think they want to ask me? She would say. And then, immediately, she loved you both so much. You made her really very happy. You were the ones who made her understand that she did not need to care about the fact that so many journalists ignored her. You brought her the love of her readers and that is all that mattered. I am sending you my private email address by private message and needless to say, I would be very happy to meet both of you whenever you want.
Je vous embrasse très amicalement and do not forget to read a few pages of one of Juliette’s book tonight. Vincent

Canvas belonging to Juliette Benzoni, which had been a present by an Artist friend to her.

Extract from « Catherine, ONE LOVE IS ENOUGH » Book 1

Sara’s prophecy had come true. At 21, the girl was as ravishing a creature as one could imagine. Her huge eyes, with their changing colour, lit up a face in which freckles had given way to a lovely velvety skin, pink and gold, and reminiscent of the petals of a tea rose. Her long golden hair was still the admiration of all. Catherine was not very tall, but her figure was perfect. Her proportions, grace and curves, at once full and delicate, would have set the most exacting painter reaching for his brush.  my power? »