By Gillian Bagwell

A exciting debut novel starring certainly one of history's most renowned and loved courtesans.

From London's slums to its bawdy playhouses, The Darling Strumpet transports the reader to the tumultuous global of seventeenth-century England, charting the meteoric upward thrust of the fantastic Nell Gwynn, who captivates the center of King Charles II-and turns into one of many century's most renowned courtesans.

Witty and gorgeous, Nell was once born into poverty yet is drawn into the mesmerizing global of the theater, the place her saucy humor and sensuous appeal earn her a spot within the King's corporation. As one of many first actresses within the newly-opened playhouses, she catapults to reputation, successful the love of legions of fans-and the guts of the main strong guy in all of britain, the King himself. Surrendering herself to Charles, Nell should be pressured to move the ruthless and moving allegiances of the royal court-and find a international of decadence and keenness she by no means imagined attainable.

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Extra resources for The Darling Strumpet: A Novel of Nell Gwynn, Who Captured the Heart of England and King Charles II

Example text

Hands raw and red from plunging into the salt water, and the fishy, salty smell always on her hands, pervading her hair and clothes. It was better than the work she had done before that, almost since she was old enough to walk--going from door to door to collect the cinders and fragments of wood left from the previous day's fires, and then taking her pickings to the soap makers, who bought the charred bits for fuel and the ashes to make lye. Her skin and clothes had been always gray and gritty, a film of stinking ash ground into her pores.

No. And that left only the choice that Rose had made, and their mother, too. Whoredom. Rose, who was four years older than Nell, had gone a year earlier to Madam Ross's nearby establishment at the top of Drury Lane. It was not so bad, Rose said. A little room of her own, except of course when she'd a man there. And they were none of the tag, rag, and bobtail--it was gentlemen who were Madam Ross's trade, and Rose earned enough to get an occasional treat for Nell, and good clothes for herself. What awe and craving Nell had felt upon seeing the first clothes Rose had bought--a pair of silk stays, a chemise of fine lawn, and a skirt and body in a vivid blue, almost the color of Rose's eyes, with ribbons to match.

A tiny dark monkey capered along before the man, diminutive cap in hand. The crowds parted to make way for the pair, and as the boys beside her laughed and clapped, the man and his little partner stopped in front of the wagon. He waved a salute and began to play a jig. The monkey skipped and frolicked before him, to the vast entertainment of the crowd. "Look at him! " Nell cried. People were tossing coins into the man's hat, which he had thrown onto the ground before him, and Nell laughed as the monkey scampered after an errant farthing and popped it into the hat.

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