Mistress Shakespeare by Karen Harper

From the Publisher

A bold and intriguing novel about the woman who was William Shakespeare's secret wife, by the national bestselling author.

As historical records show, Anne Whateley of Temple Grafton was betrothed to William Shakespeare just days before he was forced to wed the pregnant Anne Hathaway. Here, Anne Whateley takes up her pen to tell the intimate story of her daring life with Will. Obliged to acknowledge Will's publicly sanctioned marriage, Anne Whateley nevertheless follows him from rural Stratford-Upon-Avon to teeming London, where they honor their secret union, the coming together of two passionate souls. Persecution and plague, insurrection and inferno, friends and foes all play parts in Anne's lively tale.

Spanning half a century of Elizabethan and Jacobean history, and sweeping from the lowest reaches of society to the royal court, this richly textured novel tells the real story of Shakespeare in love.

Publishers Weekly

On November 27, 1582, the Worcester archives show a grant for a marriage license for one Anne Whateley and her groom, Wm Shaxpere. Yet several days later, William Shakespeare married a pregnant Anne Hathaway. Harper's slack latest takes this mystery as its subject, imagining Anne Whateley as Shakespeare's only true love. Friends from childhood driven apart by their families' antipathy, Will and Anne rediscover each other as they come of age, and the young lovers plan to wed in spite of their families' disapproval. When Will is forced into marriage with Anne Hathaway, Anne Whateley flees to London and throws herself into her family's business, but the two reunite when Will arrives in London, and Anne becomes his tireless promoter. The novel's chief pleasures derive from the easy intersection of Shakespeare's work, the history of Elizabethan England and the life that the author imagines Shakespeare might have had. Though the Bard's language infuses the story with life, the emotions underlying the lovers' ruptures and reunions feel repetitive, and because there is never any question about how the romance plays out, the central narrative feels flat. (Feb.)

Kirkus Reviews

William Shakespeare had two wives, both named Anne, one of whom was the dark lady of the sonnets, this mainstream historical romance declares. Prolific historical novelist Harper (The Hooded Hawke, 2007, etc.) offers an unexceptional mix of biography and politics in this account of historical figure Anne Whateley, who grew up in Stratford as a friend of Shakespeare despite the bad blood between their two families. Brave, clever and beautiful, with dark good looks inherited from her Italian mother, Whateley becomes Shakespeare's lover and muse. She is betrothed to Shakespeare, but the revelation of Anne Hathaway's pregnancy forces Shakespeare to marry the other woman instead. Heartbroken, Whateley moves to London, but she later feels enough loyalty to warn the Shakespeares of political peril. Her love/hate relationship with Shakespeare resumes when he arrives in London, now an actor and fledgling playwright. She inspires his sonnets and also Love's Labours Lost, which she helps him finish and sell, and offers all manner of assistance including helping him find a patron and rescuing him from a blaze at the Globe Theatre. Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Dee, Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth I pass through the novel's pages, while the plays and poetry come sequentially into being. Harper supplies a busy panorama of Elizabethan London and its intrigues, however her emphasis on Whateley's role diminishes the genius of the playwright. Meandering and conventional, but capable.

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