Read My Heart: A Love Story in England's Age of Revolution
Written by Jane Dunn
Narrated by Wanda McCaddon
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Drawing upon extensive research and the Temples' own extraordinary writings-including Dorothy's dazzling letters, one of the glories of English literature-Jane Dunn gives us an utterly captivating dual biography, the first to examine Dorothy's life as an intellectual equal to her diplomat husband. While she has been known to posterity as the very symbol of upper-class, seventeenth-century domestic English life, Dunn makes clear that she was a woman of great complexity, of passion and brilliance, noteworthy far beyond her role as a wife and mother. The remarkable story of William and Dorothy's life together-illuminated here by the author's insight and her vivid sense of place and time-offers a rare glimpse into the heart and spirit of one of the most turbulent and intriguing eras in British history.
Jane Dunn
Described by the Sunday Times as ‘one of our best biographers’, Jane Dunn writes about women and their relationships, and sisters in particular. Her books include a biography of the sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell and the bestseller Elizabeth & Mary, which looks at the lives of the cousin queens Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in Bath with her husband the writer and linguist, Nicholas Ostler.
Related to Read My Heart
Related audiobooks
Margot at War: Love and Betrayal in Downing Street, 1912-1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Long Weekend: Life in the English Country House, 1918-1939 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Scandalous Lady W: An Eighteenth-Century Tale of Sex, Scandal and Divorce Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Duchess Countess Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mrs. Adams in Winter: A Journey in the Last Days of Napoleon Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pearls Before Poppies: The Story of the Red Cross Pearls Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Improbable Adventures of Miss Emily Soldene: Actress, Writer, and Rebel Victorian Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Society's Queen: The Life of Edith, Marchioness of Londonderry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Joan, Lady of Wales: Power & Politics of King John's Daughter Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Case of the Married Woman: Caroline Norton and Her Fight for Justice for Women Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Homecoming: The Scottish Years of Mary, Queen of Scots Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Fifth Queen Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Rise and Fall of a Medieval Family: The Despensers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Baker's Tale: Ruby Spriggs and the Legacy of Charles Dickens Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lives of the Queens of England Volume 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Braxton's Century: AN EPIC NOVEL SPANNING THE GLOBE AND THE GREATEST CENTURY Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVictoria's Daughters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5To Marry an English Lord Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Louis XIV, King of France Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Widow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Shall See the Sky Sparkling Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Real Queen Charlotte: Inside the Real Bridgerton Court Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Memoirs of the Court of Queen Elizabeth, Volumes I & II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDaughters of Chivalry: The Forgotten Princesses of King Edward Longshanks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Princess To Queen: The Early Years Of Queen Elizabeth II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lady of Misrule Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
European History For You
The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Whose Middle Ages?: Teachable Moments for an Ill-Used Past Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Project MK-Ultra: The History of the CIA’s Controversial Human Experimentation Program Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for Read My Heart
9 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Somewhat stodgily told story of the romance between feisty, intelligent Royalist Dorothy Osborne and her persistent suitor, Parlimentarian William Temple. all the facts are there but the prose is leaden. i strongly suggest you head straight for Dorothy's sparkling, witty letters to William which explain why he fell for her and faced off strong hostility from both families to get her.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This biography of William Temple and Dorothy Osbourne is based primarily on their letters to one another. Theirs is a romantic story: William fell in love with Dorothy, determined that he would have no other wife, and a courtship of witty letters followed. For seven years, William resisted his family's efforts to marry him to a woman with a larger dowry and more prestige, and Dorothy managed to put off all other suitors. Finally, their families reached an agreement, and the two were married. This early section of the book is the most interesting. While there is some later discussion of their married life--lost children, travel, separations, etc.--, the remainder focuses more on William's on again/off again political career, and there seems to be a lot of repetition. Still, Dunn provides an interesting portrait of life in the days of Charles II.