Series of French historical romance novels by the author Juliette Benzoni
Catherine: One Love is Enough, first published in France as "Il suffit d'un amour" is the first of a series of seven historical romance novels written by the best-selling author Juliette Benzoni between 1963 and 1978.
It focuses on the fictitious heroine Catherine Legoix, daughter of a goldsmith in Paris at the time of the Hundred Years' War and her seemingly hopeless love for the arrogant Arnaud de Montsalvy, Lord of the Châtaignerie in Auvergne and a captain in the service of King Charles VII. From there starts a love story that will span through the events of that time. Her adventures take place in the Kingdom of France, which is torn apart by a civil war and is still suffering English occupation. The adventures fascinated millions of readers all over the world during the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1965, a song was composed by Paul Amar with additional text by Benzoni, called "Song for Catherine", which was introduced in the television show "Ni figue, ni raisin".
Plot summary.
The novel is set in the Kingdom of France at the time of the Hundred Years' War, during the war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. It begins in 1413 in Paris and continues in Dijon at the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, Bruges, Montsalvy, Auvergne, Orléans, Loire Valley, Burgos, Alhambra, and Luxembourg. The series finally ends in 1437 at the castle of Montsalvy. Catherine goes through many adventures; men fall desperately in love with her, her whole life is constantly in danger, and she is hunted down as a criminal and condemned to die more than once, until she finally becomes the beloved wife of Arnaud de Montsalvy, Lord of the Châtaignerie in Auvergne and a captain in the service of King Charles VII.
"One Love is Enough".
On 27 April 1413 during the Parisian riots, Catherine Legoix, 13-year-old daughter of a goldsmith living on the Pont-au-Change with her family, tries in vain to save a young knight, 16-year-old Armagnac Michel de Montsalvy, who has been condemned to be hanged for calling Duke John the Fearless, a traitor and spitting into his face. The attempt to saving Michel de Montsalvy that changes her life forever. Years later, she grows up at the age of 21 to be a rare beauty with long golden hair and huge violet eyes. Catherine meets a wounded knight, the noble and valiant Arnaud is Michel de Montsalvy's younger brother. They fall in love at first sight, but when the impulsive Arnaud learns that Catherine is related to the family who butchered his brother, he tells her that he only does not kill her because she is a woman. Her beauty attracts many men, including Duke Philip the Good who desires the beautiful maiden, taking her prisoner during a procession. He orders his treasurer, Garin de Brazey to marry her, so the Duke can receive the low-born Catherine at his court.
"Catherine".
The series continues with Catherine returning home and being beaten by her husband after spending a night at the palace, having been forced to stay by command of Duke Philip. When Catherine is told that Arnaud de Montsalvy will marry damsel Isabelle de Sévérac, she becomes the mistress of the Duke. For reasons unknown to Catherine, her marriage is never consummated, but her husband is very jealous and abducts her and tries to get her killed. He is condemned to death and only then reveals his secret to her. After Garin's death, Catherine is the uncrowned Queen of Dijon, Philip bestowing upon her the title of Countess of Brazey with castles, jewellery, servants, and she bears him a son, Philippe de Brazey. After the child dies at the age of four, she discovers that Arnaud de Montsalvy is not in fact married, but at war defending the city of Orléans. She decides to leave her riches behind and join him, to die at his side.
"Belle Catherine".
Catherine and Arnaud are condemned to death at Rouen, for trying to free Joan of Arc. They are able to escape, but when Catherine awakes in the morning, Arnaud is kidnapped while looking for food. Her journey brings her to the castle of the infamous Gilles de Rais who betrays his brother-in-arms to his cousin Georges de la Trémoille. After many detours the couple is again united and they marry, but they pay bitterly for this moment of happiness. Her husband is hunted down by the King's men as a traitor for trying to save Joan of Arc. The ancestral family of the castle at Montsalvy in Auvergne, is razed to the ground and the family banished from the court of King Charles VII.
"Her Great Journey".
Catherine, her son and mother-in-law have found refuge at Carlat. Queen Yolande (mother-in-law of Charles VII) sends the trusted monk Étienne to Catherine with a letter. The Queen, who knows the truth about Arnaud de Montsalvy's cruel fate (had caught a disease which everyone assumes to be leprosy) wishes her to return into her service. Catherine answers the call of Queen Yolande of Aragon, and conspires for the downfall of her enemy La Trémoille.
"A Time for Love".
The journey begins with Catherine now a pilgrim on her way to Compostela. At the monastery of Roncesvaux, she meets the wounded squire Fortunat who had left with his Lord Arnaud de Montsalvy for Compostela. She learns from him that Arnaud never had leprosy, but is now the prisoner of a beautiful princess, the sister of the King of Granada. Catherine decides to travel with Josse to the Emirate of Granada to get her husband back. At Granada, Catherine goes to the house of her old friend Abou-al-Khayr, the Moorish doctor. With his help, Catherine enters the Alhambra and is chosen as the new favourite of the Caliph. One night, while walking in the garden, she meets her husband, who although overjoyed to see her, is now cured and in full possession of his strength, and proves a very jealous husband, believing she has been unfaithful. The princess, realising that her prisoner and the Caliphs' new favourite "Light of Dawn" (Catherine), must know each other, tries to kill Catherine. With the help of Abou-al-Khayr, they are able to escape and return to Montsalvy.
"A Trap for Catherine".
The penultimate book begins with the village in Montsalvy being under attack by the routier Berault d'Apchier and his band. They know that the Lord of Montsalvy has left for Paris to join the battle against the English. Catherine's loyal people are able to catch the traitor, she learns that Gonnet d'Apchier is on his way to Paris, to denounce Catherine as an adulteress and claim that she opened the gates for her so-called lover Jean d'Apchier. When they arrive in Paris, Arnaud de Montsalvy is in the Bastille, for killing the murderer of his brother Michel de Montsalvy. Catherine rides to Bourges to see the King and ask for a pardon for her husband, but Charles VII refuses. Queen Yolande receives her and writes a pardon for Arnaud, but asks that Catherine deliver a letter in secret to her son René d'Anjou who is a prisoner of Philip of Burgundy. Shortly before Catherine arrives at her destination she and her servants are kidnapped by a band of routiers. To Catherine's horror as the mercenaries are led by Arnaud de Montsalvy, her husband does not believe her and carrying with him the forged evidence of her supposed adultery, he tries to enter the castle and gets severely wounded by a crossbow. Believing that Arnaud is dying and to save her servants, they flee in the night with the help of Catherine's old childhood friend Landry.
"The Lady of Montsalvy".
The final book begins with Catherine, and her servants at the castle of Châteauvillain. Catherine rides to Dijon to see René d'Anjou and delivers the letter from his mother Queen Yolande of Aragon. Shortly afterwards Catherine falls into a trap and escapes more dead than alive from a perfidious attack on her life. Escorted by her page Béranger de Roquemaurel and squire Gauthier Chazay, she leaves Burgundy, never wishing to return. She travels to Luxembourg where she hopes to catch up with Arnaud, who follows a young woman posing as Joan of Arc. Her husband has already left when Catherine arrives, but she is able to unmask the woman who claims to be the late Joan of Arc. Unexpected circumstances bring her to Flanders, where she meets Philip of Burgundy again. The Duke still loves her passionately and believes she has returned to him. A day later, Catherine is taken hostage by the people of Bruges, who believe she is still the mistress of the Duke of Burgundy. With the help of Jean de Rémy, sent in disguise as a monk by Philip of Burgundy, Catherine, Béranger and Gauthier can finally take the road back to Montsalvy.
Background and publication.
"Catherine" was first released in 1962 as a cliffhanger in the daily newspaper "France-Soir", even though the novel was not yet available in stores but the foreign publishing houses bought the rights for "Catherine", including West Germany, Holland, Spain, Sweden, Italy, Turkey, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and England.
In the United Kingdom, Heinemann Ltd prepared to publish "Catherine" on 13 August 1964, Benzoni was invited to a cocktail party in London by Heinemann to launching the first "Catherine" novel ("One Love is Enough"), is followed by an interview with BBC radio reporter Leigh Crutchley introducing "Countess Juliette Benzoni di Conza" to the English press, and "The Scotsman" mentioned Benzoni's trip to London. After the release of "Catherine" in Great Britain, the American market published Benzoni's series in 1967 with enormous success using different book covers and different titles. As a result, the novels were translated into more than 20 languages and 30 million copies were also sold.
Due to its success, Benzoni was asked to continue with the series, writing further volumes in between other best-sellers; six more adventures of her heroine "Catherine". The seventh book of the series ("The Lady of Montsalvy") was finally translated four decades later into English in June 2021. Readers had been left in the dark after the end of the sixth book ("A Trap for Catherine") a fact which had been unknown to Benzoni, along with the abbreviation of translated titles until some years ago.
All seven novels in both French and English were also available as e-books:
On 21 November 2014, the English publishing house Telos Publishing has bought the rights from Benzoni to re-issue the "Catherine" saga which included the previous untranslated novel "The Lady of Montsalvy". By 1 March 2015, more than 50 years later, four of the seven novels were again published, starting with "One Love is Enough" and "Catherine", followed by 2017, 2020 and 2021 by the other three novels including "A Time for Love", "A Trap for Catherine" and "The Lady of Montsalvy" as the seventh and final book for the very first time. Telos Publishing announced on their official website that this time the "Catherine" novels would be unabridged, with the new editions from Telos are also available on Amazon Kindle and other devices.
Simultaneously, the French publisher Pocket re-published the "Catherine" novels in April 2015 in both paperback and the first time as e-books. Pocket chose for the book covers which features the beautiful "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry", famous French Gothic illuminationed manuscripts, which belonged to John, Duke of Berry.
Critical reception.
In 1963, the French daily newspapers such as "Le Figaro" and "France-Soir" wrote in their reviews for the first "Catherine" novel: "Before the novel was even available in book stores it beats all records and is already sold to ten different countries. It has an unprecedented destiny in the history of publishing". On 10 June 1964, after the second volume was released the headline read in "Le Provençal": "A heroine... who takes place... alongside of Scarlett O'Hara".
On 10 July 1964, Henri de Montfort, French historian, writer, and journalist, confirmed in "Ici Paris": "This is a very enthralling novel of which one can say that it deserves the term "Romanesque" which is the best guarantee to keep a reader spellbound with pleasure and emotion during reading. Worth mentioning are the excellent treasury of words and of style". Heinemann Ltd from England sent a telegram to Benzoni with the text: "Congratulations –