Juliette Benzoni is truly indefatigable... The doyenne of historical fiction has been keeping up this frenetic pace for fifty years. Her recipe? Passion and hard work. ~ l'Actu Littéraire 2012 ~

Synopsis : The Daughter of the Condemned 2012
translated from French by Linda,webmaster

June 21, 1627, François de Montmorency-Bouteville is beheaded at the Place de Grève for having violated twenty-eight times the royal edicts which prohibited duels. He leaves behind a twenty-four year old wife, two little girls and a little boy yet to be born.

It would have been poverty if not Princess Charlotte de Condé, their cousin, felt responsible to raise the children accordingly to their rank. At the Princess home Isabelle, the younger girl falls very early in love with the Duke d'Enghien, the future Grand Condé and eldest son of the house, who is six years older and who disdains her until she grows up to be a beauty.

This will deeply displease his sister Anne-Geneviève, future Duchess of Longueville, very beautiful and who much idolizes her brother with feelings at disorder! She never tolerates that her brother loves someone else and behaves accordingly…

When the troubles of the Fronde break out, that long revolt where everyone betrays everyone, where the friend of yesterday becomes the enemy of the future, where one hangs around in the mud of the Regent Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin, the relationship between Isabelle, now Duchess of Châtillon to Madame de Longueville  takes on a new dimension putting them in opposing parties...

Synopsis : Princess of Vandals
translated from French by Linda,webmaster

After finding her castle plundered and devastated by the troops of the Grand Condé, whom she loves since childhood, Isabelle, Duchess of Châtillon, intends to make him pay, yet cannot resist him for long when he confesses his love to her. It could be happiness, but it is the end of a relative peaceful time for Isabelle.
The Fronde of the Parliament and the Parisians ends. That of the Princes begins. The reason is more to chase away Mazarin who is seizing for power, before the young Louis XIV will assume his reign.

For Isabelle begins a relentless and exhausting fight where she will go to gamble her life to prevent the hero of Rocroi to join the enemy to put his weapons against France, carrying with him François, her younger brother whom she loves infinitely.
When this hard battle ends, Isabelle, adored by some, detested by others, will not have finished with adventures. They lead her very far, very high, never abandoning the love of her childhood.



... with her irresistibly charming prose, Juliette Benzoni recounts the century of Louis XIV through the eyes of a freely-minded woman, Isabelle de Bouteville-Montmorency, Duchess of Châtillon...



Juliette Benzoni addresses her readers
A surprise for her readers in the France Loisirs edition of 'The condemned man's daughter'

I'm going to confide in you, dear friends of the Club.
Until I met Isabelle, I never understood anything about the Fronde, that insane period when "yesterday's friend became tomorrow's enemy".
Born on the steps of the scaffold where her father died, charming and full of life, she lived through this period of violent unrest, adored by some and hated by others, without ever abandoning what was important to her: her passion for Condé, her love for her younger brother and her loyalty to Louis XIV, who was still too young to impose his will...
I like Isabelle! Do you? Sincerely! ℐuliette ℬenzoni



♣ France Loisirs Edition 2014 - On the Cover :  Portrait of Barbara Villiers (detail), by Sir Peter Lely  ©Agnew's Londres. The Bridgerman Art Library

♣ Inscription :

in this book of Linda Compagnoni Walther (webmaster)



[ Creation © Hélène Rouillé ]

♣ A few more Covers...



Editions by France Loisirs 2014



Editions by Livres Grand Caractères V.B.D



♣ Both books are also available in Kindle format on Amazon, either single or together.



♣ These books have also been translated in Russia : 



1. Война герцогинь 2. Принцесса вандалов



One is blonde, the other brown. One is of the Condé's, the other one of the Montmorency's. One is bellicose and probably a bit silly. The other is more charming. Both are duchesses. Longueville first. Châtillon, for the second, who is the heroine of the book. For once, Juliette Benzoni leaves very little room for imagination. She just tells the somewhat adventurous life of Isabelle Angelique de Montmorency-Boutteville, Duchess of Châtillon and of Mecklenburg. Her father died on the scaffold in 1627, when she was only a few months old. She grew up during the Fronde. And to convince her family to accept her marriage, she lets herself be kidnapped by her lover. The funny thing is that all this is true.

~ Vincent Meylan, Journalist, Historian and dear friend of Juliette Benzoni ~ [ Magazine Point de Vue ]

♣ L'ACTU LITTÉRAIRE 2012
La Guerre des Femmes : La fille du condamné 1

♣ The Press speaks :

... The heroes of Juliette Benzoni are always beautiful and inventive; the heroines gorgeous and brave. (...) She is somehow the legitimate heiress of Alexandre Dumas ! ... Her recipe? Passion and work!

♣ A passion for History :

Juliette Benzoni has been lighting up our imaginations for many years. Thanks to her, readers travel back in time, visiting all the regions of France and discovering faraway lands. History is her favourite subject, and human nature never ceases to stimulate her insatiable curiosity. In a way, she is the legitimate heir to Alexandre Dumas, whose work is irresistibly reminiscent of her new series. Louis XIII and little Louis XIV, Richelieu and Mazarin, Anne of Austria and Condé - we are in familiar territory. Two heroines join this cast of fabulous characters: two orphans, two duchesses, and above all two women who hate each other because they love each other.

♣ L'ACTU LITTÉRAIRE 2013
La Guerre des Femmes : Princesse des Vandales



An Exceptional Route

Alexandre Dumas was undoubtedly the author who sparked a passion for history and a vocation for writing in the very young Juliette Benzoni. Her career as a successful novelist began in 1963 with the Catherine series, translated into more than twenty languages, a series that launched her onto the national literary scene, where she would remain ever since.

Since then, she has written dozens of novels, including the series La Florentine (1988-1989), Les Treize Vents (1992), Le Boiteur de Varsovie (1994-19961) and Secret d'État (1997-1998). From the Middle Ages to the 1930s, Juliette Benzoni's historical reconstructions are based on meticulous documentation. Seen through the eyes of her heroines, our past, brought to life by their thrilling adventures, beats to the rhythm of passion. There's no doubt that this second volume of La Guerre des duchesses will delight a readership already won over. Juliette Benzoni is one of the most widely read writers in France, with fifty million readers in over twenty countries.

l'Actu Littéraire has chosen 2013 the novel for Grand Livre du Mois - to mark the release of volume 2 of La Guerre des Duchesses Princesse des Vandales.



An extract of the image from the above article

Episode of the Fronde, 1652: The meeting of the Grande Mademoiselle (Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans de Montpensier, 1627 - 1693) and Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé (Bourbon-Condé) (Grand Condé) 1621 - 1686) Painting by Sophie Rude (1797 - 1867) Dijon, Musée des Beaux Arts © De Agostini/Leemage

♣ The Canadian Press...



Original article in :  Le Journal de Quebec (Canada) / translated by ©Linda Compagnoni Walther

Intrigues at court...

After 92 novels, Juliette Benzoni, the queen of French historical fiction, is as fascinated as ever by the intrigues of the court. With La guerre des duchesses, a story divided into two volumes, she explores the rivalries during the Fronde period. A pure delight.
"You know, the intrigues of the court, combined with the rather bizarre character of the French, make for some incredible stuff," exclaimed the 92-year-old writer with good humour in a telephone interview.
In La guerre des duchesses, Juliette Benzoni explored the period of the Fronde, the long period of revolt that divided the French in the 17th century, during the minority of Louis XIV. In 1627, François de Montmorency-Bouteville was beheaded. He left behind a young wife of 20 years, two young daughters and an unborn son.

Concerned about their fate, Princess Charlotte de Condé took them under her wings. Isabelle, the youngest daughter, fell in love with the Duc d'Enghien, creating a rivalry with Anne-Geneviève, the future Duchess of Longueville.
Even though she knows French history like the back of her hand, Juliette Benzoni was astonished by the discoveries she made in the course of her research for this novel. "I hadn't studied the Fronde period for a very long time and I was really very surprised to find out what I discovered. People were completely mad!

A book published in 1913
Several facts surprised her. "I knew a few things about my heroine, Isabelle de Montmorency, and then I came across an extremely detailed book that my daughter had found for me on the internet. It's a brand new book that was published 100 years ago. I cut out the pages, as they used to do with books in the old days. I really fell in love with it!
She admits that this Isabelle was an incredible character. "She was a courageous person who enjoyed life and loved love. She really had a sense of humour right to the end. She had this tenderness... she was very faithful, after all, in love, because with Condé it became a tender friendship towards the end."
Les châteaux

Curious about everything, extremely quick-witted and passionate, Ms Benzoni has fine-tuned her research so as to punctuate her story with a host of details that make it extraordinarily vivid, such as the dishes served at Louis XIV's table, for example, or the castles.
"I always look for as much detail as possible. Castles, when there are any left, are marvellous. You have to find out what they were like before, and I like to poke around..." she assures us.

Now she doesn't visit the places any more because, unfortunately, she has a lot of difficulty getting around. "I have problems with my legs and I don't leave my house any more. What can I say? I cannot gallop for years at my age!
Have you increased in imagination? "I don't know. I cannot see it. I know there are times when I don't sleep at night because I don't know what I'm going to write, but that's always happened to me. It's always been like that and I am convinced other writers would tell you the same thing."

Love, hate
The fluidity of the text, her perfect mastery of the historical novel, the way she perfectly frames the story so that you enter into it as if you were watching a film, all bear witness to her extraordinary talent.

«The thing is, I make my characters react in much the same way as they would react in today's world. Just as the language is the language of today, which I use now. You know, men and women haven't changed that much. The emotions are still there, on one side or the other, whether it's hate or love. It doesn't change. You always end up at the same point »

~ © Marie-France Bornais ~  25 avril 2013 l'article dans Le Journal de Quebec (Canada)



Livre Audio LIZZIE avec 2 CD audio MP3


©2018 Lizzie, un département d'Univers Poche, Paris



♣ Audio MP3 :  1. La fille du condamné - but alas the second MP3 does not exist, the Firm closed.

[ Creation © Linda Compagnoni Walther ]

Dialogue between the Duke d'Enghien and Duchess Isabelle de Chatillon

Duke d'Enghien :

God, how beautiful you are my dear! Each time we see each other I discover you more seductive than the last! When I think of the trouble I took to unite you with Coligny, I come to believe that I was mad! I should have kept you for myself!

Isabelle de Chatillon :  

We only forget two things, cousin.
One: you can only keep what belongs to you, and two: never... and I still love my husband!

Duke d'Enghien :

... who cheats on you with every Courtier in Paris!

♣ Nota:
On the creation we see a painting of Elisabeth-Angélique, duchesse de Châtillon, who was the daughter of François de Montmorency-Bouteville who had been beheaded at the place de Grève in Paris.