I am proud to say I have read the whole saga from beginning to end and instantly fell in love with the "Stuart Charm". My favorite by far was the Charles the II's novels or as I read them combined into one "The Loves of Charles II". I hope that all my historical fiction lovers out there have the chance to read at least one of these richly portrayed Jean Plaidy novels because they are real historical fiction gems.
When I originally set out on the Jean Plaidy Stuart Saga endeavor I had had planned on adding every single cover art for every single novel in this saga. I found out the hard way that conflicting info and the overwhelming daunting task of making sure everything is correct, I have nixed the plan to include everything because the reality is that we are dealing with multiple releases in multiple formats spanning multiple countries. I decided to condense it down into my favorites the original releases then the three other publishers that reccently re-printed the series: Three Rivers Press, Crown Publishing, Arrow Books and Cornerstone Digital. I must note that I did not include the digital releases in publications list.
The original U.K. hardback releases of The Stuart Saga. Rare and usually expensive in good condition. Printed through out the 70's.
Three Rivers Press, beautiful novels to collect because the spine has a piece of the cover art and when you line them all up on a bookcase it shows all of the historical art. I would recommend collecting this set if you are also going to collect the other prints by Three Rivers like The Queen's of England series BUT....be for warned that if you do go with this set like I did many of these copies are very hard to get and if you order them on Amazon even though they show the Three Rivers Press version you WILL get Crown's version instead. I had a really hard time rounding all of these re-prints up especially "Murder Most Royal" but they are to die for on a bookcase. If you want to see mine all lined up check out this post on my Jean Plaidy collection. The Queens of England series is in this print and The Stuart Saga.
Crown Publishing, I have a mix of these ones I am missing the Mary Queen of Scots ones but I have "The Murder in the Tower" on to the end. I really do not like it that Crown chose to use the same cover art for "The Captive Queen of Scots" and "The Three Crowns". I really can not accept why they would do that but to me but it really throws a wrench in it for collectors because it is the most recent re-prints but it is like having a double copy. This set of re-prints really looks lovely on a shelf too like the Three Rivers prints because they made the spine very appealing. This publisher is also a good one for collecting The Tudors Series and the Lucreazia Borgia duo because they are the most recent re-prints
Arrow Books and Cornerstone Digital U.K. editions: this is where it gets complicated Arrow books published hard copies of "The Royal Road to Fotheringhay" and "The Captive Queen of Scots" but after that they stopped and Cornerstone Digital picked up the same style of cover art for the kindle aka digital versions of the rest of the series. I wish they would consider making hard copies of all of them but I doubt that will happen. Arrow books is really good to collect for other Plaidy series like
The Plantagenet Saga, Queen Victoria Quartet, Isabella and Ferdinand Trilogy, Catherine de Medici Trilogy.
Mary Stuart ~ Two Novels
- 1 "The Royal Road to Fotheringay" ~ ISBN 9780609810231, Originally Published 1955. Publications: 1968 hardback, 2004 paperback, 2007 paperback, 2010 paperback. Synopsis, Amazon, My Review
- 2 "The Captive Queen of Scots" ~ ISBN 9781400082513, Originally Published 1963. Publications: 1967 Hardback, 1967 paperback, 1965 hardback, 1969 "Fair Devil of Scotland", 1971 paperback, 1977 paperback, 2006 paperback, 2007 paperback. Synopsis, Amazon, My Review, Search my blog for more on Mary Queen of Scots
James I ~ One Novel
- 3 "The Murder in the Tower: The Story of Frances, Countess of Essex" ~ ISBN 9780307346216, Originally Published 1964. Publications: 1964 hardcover, 1971 paperback, and 1974 hardcover, 2010 paperback. Synopsis, Amazon, My Review Search my blog for more on James I
Charles II ~ Three Novels or One Combined Version
- 4 "The Wandering Prince" ISBN 9780330022415, Originally Published 1956. Publications: 1956 hardcover, 1969 paperback, 1971 hardcover, and 1972 paperback. Synopsis, Amazon, My Review
- 5 "Health Unto His Majesty" ISBN 9780330022835, Originally Published 1956. Publications: 1969 hardcover, 1969 paperback, 1972 hardcover, 1973 paperback, and 1992 hardcover. Synopsis, Amazon, My Review
- 6 "Here Lies our Sovereign Lord" ISBN 9780449232569, Originally Published 1957. Publications: 1969 paperback, 1973 hardcover, 1975 paperback. Synopsis, Amazon, My Review
- 4,5,6 Combined "The Loves of Charles II" ISBN 9781400082483, Originally published in 1972 Published as a combined re-print in 2005, The one volume version of "The Wandering Prince", "Health Unto His Majesty", and "Here Lies our Sovereign Lord". Publications: 2005 paperback, 2005 paperback. Synopsis, Amazon, Search my blog for more on Charles II
Mary II and Anne Queen of Great Britain ~ Three Novels or One Combined Version
- 8 "The Haunted Sisters" ISBN 9780307719522, Originally Published 1966, "Haunted sisters" was retitled "Royal Sisters: The Story of the Daughters of James II" for the most recent re-print 2011. Publications: 1977 paperback, 2011 paperback
- 7,8,9 Combined "The Last of the Stuarts" ISBN 9780709161974, Originally Published 1965, The one volume version of "The Three Crowns", "The Haunted Sisters", and "The Queen's Favorites". Publications: Published 1977 Hardcover. Synopsis, Amazon, Search my blog for more on Mary II, and Anne Queen of Great Britain
Impressive & helpful.
ReplyDeleteThank you Jessica it took me forever to get all this information right. I am super happy it helped you! I loved all of these books but the loves of charles II will always be my favorite.
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