Mistress of My Fate

Mistress of My Fate

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

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 Number One Sunday Times bestselling and Baillie Gifford Non-Fiction prize-winning social historian whose expertise lies in revealing stories of previously unknown women and episodes in history. As well as The Covent Garden Ladies, Rubenhold's works of non-fiction include the award-winning and Number One bestselling The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper and Lady Worsley's Whim, dramatized by the BBC as 'The Scandalous Lady W'. Her latest work of non-fiction, Bad Women, the story of the disappeared wives and partner of Dr Crippen, is due to be published in 2022. She has also written two acclaimed novels Mistress of My Fate and The French Lesson which are a feminist homage to the literary tropes of the Eighteenth Century. She lives in London with her husband. Meet her @HallieRubenhold
Learn More

Sign up to the Penguin Newsletter

For the latest books, recommendations, author interviews and more