I, Christine

By Marcia Maxwell

CIBA Semi-finalist 2026
"Sprightly and sparkling...dramatic incidents abound...a lively rendering of a life and mind that inspires." In the year of grace 1396, Christine de Pizan is a young Parisian woman living in a tower overlooking the Seine. Hers, however, is not a fairy story but a life of increasing desperation. Widowed for six years, she's continually tormented by demon-infested nightmares reliving the loss of her beloved husband. She finally collapses half-starved at the feet of the one man who can help her: court poet Eustache Deschamps. Learning that she is literate in both French and Latin, Christine is relieved and happy to accept the job he offers copying manuscripts in the king's library. However, when he asks to hear the poetry she's writing, she flatly refuses. The verses are too passionately personal to share, even with Eustache.

Eventually Eustache persuades Christine to read her verses at court, where she attracts the interest of powerful nobles who become valued-and generous-patrons. She's buoyed by her success until she learns that, as the only woman poet at court, she is being publicly disparaged by the male poets she's displaced.

Enraged by her success, the men do all they can to silence her. Christine, undeterred, strikes back the only way she can, using her wits and her pen to defend herself and all women.

"...Internal struggles with grief and self-doubt, external conflicts against societal expectations, and dangerous court intrigues..." and brimming with meticulously researched detail that brings the fourteenth century to dazzling life, fans of Coirle Mooney and Elizabeth Chadwick will appreciate I, Christine: the incredible true story of the first woman in France to earn her living as an author.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CDNBZF9W
• ISBN13: 9798850654399
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 442 Pages
• Weight: 1.29 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"