Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
Book Club Edition
Sears Readers Club

Front Cover:
The Goldsmith’s Wife
Jean Plaidy
“The story of lovely Jane Shore, who married a worthy merchant and ran away with a handsome King”

Synopsis:

Wayward, passionate, good-hearted, and loved by many men, Jane Shore ran away from Lombard Street, where she was the wife of a respectable goldsmith, to rule the court as mistress to handsome King Edward IV.

Many famous personalities of the period figure in Jane’s story. Jean Plaidy offers a new interpretation of Richard, brother of the King and later Richard III, which completely contradicts the conception of Richard as the blackhearted villain created by Shakespeare to please Queen Elizabeth. The brutal and sensual Marquis of Dorset; Lord Hastings, who thwarted passion for Jane became an obsession which eventually was his undoing; and Mary Blague, ostensibly lace-woman to the King but in secret, brothel-keeper and procuress–these just a few of the fascinating characters recreated in this robust novel. Here, too, are the two little princes, victims of history’s most mysterious and callous murder.

Among these moved Jane–a dainty, goldenhaired figure, the loveliest and merriest lady of the court. Humble mercer’s daughter, goldsmith’s wife, king’s favorite, Jane Shore had a story of amazing contrasts, from the days when she graced the royal banquets to the time when she did penance through the streets of London as a common harlot. Set against the colorful and dangerous background of fifteenth-century London, this is an entertaining and vigorous historical novel.

Back cover:

Jean Plaidy writes about herself:

“I consider myself extremely lucky to have been born in London, and to have spent my childhood there; and to have had on my doorstep this most fascinating of cities with so many relics of 2,000 years of history still to be found in its streets. One of my greatest pleasures was, and still is, exploring London.

Circumstances arose which brought mu school life to an abrupt termination, and I went hastily to a business college where I studies shorthand, type-writing and languages. And so I had to set about the business of earning a living.

For the next two or three years I filled many posts. I have handled unique opals and pearls of great price in Hatton Garden, and was once engaged as an interpreter to French and German patrons of a city cafe, where, luckily for me, no Germans ever came, and the French who did were very gallant.

I found that married life gave me the necessary freedom–even during the war when I did a part-time job in a Ministry–to follow an ambition which had been with me since my childhood; and so I started to write in earnest.”