Hallie Rubenhold, Jane McDowell (Read by)

Mistress of My Fate

By the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of THE FIVE

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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

For fans of BBC TV's hit series HARLOTS

My tale is not for the faint of heart.

Born illegitimate in eighteenth-century England, Henrietta Lightfoot reveals the truth about the events that shaped her in this candid confessional of a wide-eyed girl's journey to worldliness.

Forced to flee her childhood home for the capital, Henrietta falls face first into a demi-monde of rakes, rogues, wits, pimps and courtesans. It is not long before she realizes that true liberty is a privilege to be enjoyed by men. But Henrietta is determined to find independence.

In this deliciously deviant novel, Rubenhold illuminates the dark lives of the women written out of eighteenth-century literature by the great male writers. Vibrant and full-blooded, it is an unputdownable picaresque story for our times

'A remarkable picture of a fascinating age' DAILY EXPRESS

'A full-blooded historical' INDEPENDENT

'Two parts Lizzie Bennett and Tom Jones's Sophia Western to one part Moll Flanders' INDEPENDENT

'Combines extraordinary bawdiness with silky sophistication' DAILY EXPRESS

© Hallie Rubenhold 2011 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

Reviews

A remarkable picture of a fascinating age which combined extraordinary bawdiness with silky sophistication (think Hogarth and Gainsborough)
DAILY EXPRESS

About the author

Hallie Rubenhold

Hallie Rubenhold is the #1 Sunday Times bestselling and Baillie Gifford prize-winning author of The Five, the Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. A renowned social historian whose expertise lies in revealing stories of previously unknown women and episodes in history, she is the author of The Covent Garden Ladies which was the inspiration behind BBC TV's 'Harlots'. Her biographical work, Lady Worsley's Whim, was dramatized by the BBC as 'The Scandalous Lady W'. Her most recent work of non-fiction, Story of a Murder, the wives, the mistress and Dr Crippen, will be published in March 2025. She has also written two acclaimed novels Mistress of My Fate and The French Lesson which give voice to the women written out by eighteenth-century literature. She lives in London with her husband. Meet her @HallieRubenhold

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