A Challenge Completed

'Lastly, do I vow,

that mine eyes
desire you above
all things.'

The words above form the last sentence of Katherine of Aragon's last letter to King Henry VIII. The letter was written in 1535. Katherine died the year after. She maintained till the end that her marriage with Henry was valid, she was queen , and that she loved her husband.

Love Letters of Great Women is an anthology edited by Ursula Doyle. In addition to some letters by Katharine of Aragon it includes letters from 1399 to 1917 written by almost 30 other women. Some of the most touching being the very last letters in the anthology written by a woman living in Walthamstow (in London) to her soldier husband fighting in the first World War. 

Not all letters were stricktly love letters. The anthology includes also a freezingly polite note by Katherine Mansfield to a rival for her husband's affections:

'Dear Princess Bibesco,
I am afraid you must stop writing these little love letters to my husband while he and I live together. It is one of the things which is not done in our world.

You are very young. Won't you ask your husband to explain to you the impossibility of such a situation.

Please do not make me have to write to you again. I do not like scolding people and I
simply hate to having to teach them manners.'

That is an icy letter, isn't it? Mansfield really knew how to use words for great effect. ;)

Love letters of Great Women was an easy and interesting read. In addition to the letters it includes a short biographical introduction of each of the women, plus some background info on the letters. This book was my third non-fiction read and the eight and final book to be read for the Women Unbound Challenge. Last year I entered my first two reading challenges but did not finish either one of them. Women Unbound is the first reading challenge that I have actually completed! Yay for me! :)