Read My Heart: A Love Story in England's Age of Revolution

Written by Jane Dunn

Narrated by Wanda McCaddon

When Sir William Temple (1628–1699) and Dorothy Osborne (1627–1695) began their passionate love affair, civil war was raging in Britain, and their families-parliamentarians and royalists, respectively-did everything to keep them apart. Yet the couple went on to enjoy a marriage and a sophisticated partnership unique in its times. Surviving the political chaos of the era, the Black Plague, the Great Fire of London, and the deaths of all their nine children, William and Dorothy made a life together for more than forty years.

Drawing upon extensive research and the Temples' own extraordinary writings-including Dorothy's dazzling letters, one of the glories of English literature-Jane Dunn gives us an utterly captivating dual biography, the first to examine Dorothy's life as an intellectual equal to her diplomat husband. While she has been known to posterity as the very symbol of upper-class, seventeenth-century domestic English life, Dunn makes clear that she was a woman of great complexity, of passion and brilliance, noteworthy far beyond her role as a wife and mother. The remarkable story of William and Dorothy's life together-illuminated here by the author's insight and her vivid sense of place and time-offers a rare glimpse into the heart and spirit of one of the most turbulent and intriguing eras in British history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Oct 28, 2008
• ISBN: 9781400179671

Jane Dunn

Described by the Sunday Times as ‘one of our best biographers’, Jane Dunn writes about women and their relationships, and sisters in particular. Her books include a biography of the sisters Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell and the bestseller Elizabeth & Mary, which looks at the lives of the cousin queens Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in Bath with her husband the writer and linguist, Nicholas Ostler.

Reviews for Read My Heart

[rosielee_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Somewhat stodgily told story of the romance between feisty, intelligent Royalist Dorothy Osborne and her persistent suitor, Parlimentarian William Temple. all the facts are there but the prose is leaden. i strongly suggest you head straight for Dorothy's sparkling, witty letters to William which explain why he fell for her and faced off strong hostility from both families to get her.

[cariola_6 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This biography of William Temple and Dorothy Osbourne is based primarily on their letters to one another. Theirs is a romantic story: William fell in love with Dorothy, determined that he would have no other wife, and a courtship of witty letters followed. For seven years, William resisted his family's efforts to marry him to a woman with a larger dowry and more prestige, and Dorothy managed to put off all other suitors. Finally, their families reached an agreement, and the two were married. This early section of the book is the most interesting. While there is some later discussion of their married life--lost children, travel, separations, etc.--, the remainder focuses more on William's on again/off again political career, and there seems to be a lot of repetition. Still, Dunn provides an interesting portrait of life in the days of Charles II.