The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story is the fourteenth book by Australian author, Karen Brooks. Motherless from birth and fatherless by age ten, Eleanor Cornfed is put into service at Noke Manor. By twelve, subsequent to an incident that might have seen her maligned and cast out, she finds herself in an arranged marriage to sixty-one-year-old, Fulk Bigod, a smelly, despised and avoided local wool grower about whom rumours of cruelty and murder abound. And if her first impression of his farm is a negative one, and her reception from his daughter Alyson is chilly, Eleanor is puzzled to discover the real man.

With that introduction to her story, most readers will be hooked. Eleanor is easily likeable and the reader is soon cheering her on, sympathising with her losses and celebrating her triumphs. The loyalty of her friends and employees becomes easily understandable. We follow her journey through marriage (five times), friendship, good fortune and difficult times (that include natural disasters and plague), widowhood (several times, the first at age seventeen) and beyond.

Eleanor certainly does find herself married to a variety of men: one whose gruffness and grubbiness belies his genuine goodness; one whose greed presents a challenge; one whose proposal is strictly business; a womaniser; and one who is free with his fists. Two of her husbands die from natural causes, two are murdered, and the fate of one would be a spoiler if revealed.

Her resilience is perhaps a product of her early childhood, a father who counsels: “You have to create opportunities where you can. No matter what life hurls at you, child, catch it. If it’s shit, turn it into fertiliser. If it’s insults, throw them back. Grip opportunity with both hands and ride it like a wild colt until you’ve tamed it. You’ve come from nothing, and unless you make something of yourself with what you’re offered, it’s to nothing you’ll return.”

The setting, fourteenth Century England, Rome, Cologne, and Jerusalem is of course utterly fascinating, and the level of historical detail is evidence of the author’s extensive research. The narrative, both directly, and in the form of letters, is exclusively Eleanor’s, so it her perspective of world events, her impression of a number of historical figures, including Geoffrey Chaucer, that is presented here. And as this is a version of his tale, Chaucer plays a significant role.

When Eleanor learns of his Wife of Bath Tale, her sense of betrayal (“Or is that what writers did? Sacrifice their friends, make public their secrets and desires, their innermost fears, all for personal gain?”) leads to a period of estrangement between the friends.

Eleanor begins her tale with “when my story is complete, you can judge for yourself whose version you prefer: the loud, much-married, lusty woman dressed in scarlet who travelled the world in order to pray at all the important shrines yet learned nothing of humility, questioned divinity, boasted of her conquests and deceits, and demanded mastery over men. Or the imperfect child who grew into an imperfect woman –experienced, foolish and clever too –oft at the same time. Thrice broken, twice betrayed, once murdered and once a murderer, who mended herself time after time and rose to live again in stories and in truth –mostly. All this despite five bloody husbands. All this, despite the damn Poet.”

Eleanor gives her version of Chaucer’s Wife of Bath tale and, while it might give a helpful background to have read Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in her Introduction, the author gives sufficient information, so it is not in any way necessary for the enjoyment of Eleanor’s story. And, prefacing each section, the relevant portion of verse is reproduced.

Even in the fourteenth century, Brooks gives Eleanor a feminist voice: “Denied access to learning, to knowledge, and treated like children at best, property at worst, women were deemed weak and incapable. It still caused me great consternation. As I’d said to Geoffrey, if we females could but exercise our minds as we did our bodies, then we could give birth not just to babes, but ideas, and be valued for more than our queyntes and our wombs.” Brilliant historical fiction.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and HQ Fiction.

The Good Wife of Bath is a highly entertaining retelling of sorts of Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’ from The Canterbury Tale. The story is told from Eleanor’s point of view and is quite funny.

It was a difficult read in parts, but it felt extremely well researched and gave a great sense of the times.
Karen Brooks has done a fabulous job in writing this story and the standout for me was the humour in which it was written.

Eleanor is my new hero. This novel was absolutely amazing, funny and highly entertaining and has earned itself a spot in my top 20 this year for sure.
It’s almost like “The 7 husbands of Evelyn Hugo” but set in the Middle Ages (and we’re only dealing with 5 husbands).
I loved the heart and emotions the book portrayed. I loved the wit and sense of business within Eleanor and the aspect of sisterhood and family. The characters comments had me laugh out loud at times.
Altogether I cannot recommend this book highly enough to anyone who’s looking for a heartwarming and entertaining read with some epic and strong female characters.
I cannot wait for the author’s next book.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thoroughly entertaining, The Good Wife of Bath is a retelling of sorts, of Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’ from The Canterbury Tales. Now, I have never read any part of The Canterbury Tales, much less the wife’s tale, so I can’t comment on this novel in relation to Chaucer’s original work. However, Karen Brooks does pay homage to the Wife of Bath, and Chaucer himself, within this novel and I feel I was given much insight into the original verse as well as the author himself through the pages of this story. In other words, I got the gist.

I am quite a fan of Karen Brooks. Her attention to detail and immersive writing is the fine wine of historical fiction. The research that her narrative rests on is phenomenal, there is literally no stone left unturned and she even nails the dialogue and language of her era with such authenticity. Set in the Middle Ages, there was so much about daily life I was completely ignorant to. But she also weaves in the bigger things: changes to kings, uprisings, plagues, trade, commerce, social conventions and all manner of mores; really, in terms of recreating an historical period, this novel is brilliant.

‘If I continued to burden myself with guilt, then Jankin wins – they all do.’
‘Who, mistress?’ she asked quietly.
‘The men who continue to make us women pay for their sins; who have done so since Eve offered the apple to Adam. But –’ I twisted around in the tub so I could look Milda in the face. ‘Remember Mistress Ibbot? Wace’s midwife? She said – and I’ve always thought – Eve didn’t make him eat the bloody fruit. She offered Adam a choice and he made one. So whose sin is it really? Who is really responsible for the Fall of mankind? Is it her or him? Or are they both equally culpable?’

The beating heart of The Good Wife of Bath though is its focus on women’s agency, particularly that of wives, because let’s face it, that’s pretty much all you were going to get to be. By giving her main character five very different marriages, we as readers were treated to a varied experience. We got to see, not only what it would have been like to be a wife of the Middle Ages, but also the restrictions that crossed class as our main character moved up the social ladder with each new union. Basically, when it came to marriage, you were damned if you did and damned if you didn’t. And in the end, social class did not dictate what sort of marriage (or man) you would be getting, despite the material comforts wealth offered.

‘I always enjoy placing women back into history, demonstrating, albeit through researched fiction, that while they may not be recorded or remembered in the same way as their male counterparts, they were there. Herstory happened too. The omission of women from history doesn’t mean they didn’t live it, nor that they didn’t influence it. But just as we forget that to our detriment, so too it’s a mistake to think women fighting for their rights is exclusive to contemporary times. Many women have, over time, fought to be recognised as more than simply walking wombs, the ‘weaker vessel’, good only for sating men’s desires, ‘feeble-minded’ penis-less poor copies of men, responsible for the Fall, men’s inability to control their urges, and so much more. What’s true about the past is that women didn’t have the freedoms, education or ability to fight for their rights the way we continue to today.’ – AUTHOR NOTE

The narration of this novel makes for a highly entertaining read. It is above all a comedy, but there are throughout significant moments of heartbreak. Towards the end, the novel does bear down a bit under its own weight, and I have to be honest, I wasn’t too keen on the trade our main character settled into once she moved to London. It just felt…inevitable in a way I wish the author had resisted. Still, The Good Wife of Bath was a superb read, a real treat for fans of historical fiction, particularly those who like a good long saga to sink into.



Thanks to the publisher for the review copy.

I've been meaning to read something from Karen Brooks for a long time (I even own at least one of her books, buried deep somewhere in my Kindle), and I'm very glad I finally did - I will definitely be bumping her work up my TBR. The Good Wife of Bath is, as the title suggests, based on Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath". I've never read the Canterbury Tales, but that's no impediment to enjoying this story of a women's life in 14th century England, which is filled with strength, determination, and a little vanity and self-righteousness. Oh, and five husbands.

What really stood out to me about this book is how deftly Brooks' deals with the constraints on women's agency historically. It's not an easy book to read at points; the main character is married off at twelve years old to a man old enough to be her grandfather, and is then physically and sexually assaulted by later husbands, not to mention the plague, and the various realities of life that are unfathomable now (sleeping on straw and bathing once a month, ew). But, I appreciated that Brooks didn't shy away from these realities and showed a woman who knew she deserved better and fought for a better existence, within the boundaries of what would have been possible for a woman of the time. There is an extensive author's note at the back which is what convinced me to bump my rating up to five stars, upon seeing the care and sensitivity of the author in telling this story.

Despite this, it's also fun; there is plenty of wit and humour in the main character's telling of her story, and many a pithy aside about the follies of men. It also highlights the importance of friendships among women, and celebrates the various ways in which women bond together even as they seek different things from their lives. These scenes were a nice counterpoint to all the ways in which life was awful for women, historically, and added significantly to my enjoyment of the book.

The Good Wife of Bath is the fictitious back-story of The Wife of Bath from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Chaucer's "Wife", Alyson, is 5-times-married and the maker of some dubious decisions, and has long been the object of ridicule. But like most women of her time, Alyson's story is been interpreted by a man. She was never given the chance to present her side of the story in her own words. In Karen Brooks' novel, she is given a voice.

Alyson began life as Eleanor Cornfed, orphaned at a young age and married off to an elderly farmer at the age of 12. Life could have gone in so many directions for Eleanor, but her intelligence, pluck and general good nature lead her to prosper through good times and bad. Eleanor is lusty; she was born under the sign of Venus, after all; and she makes a few dubious decisions which sometimes leave her in hot water.

The essential theme of this novel is the role of women in 14th century England - how they had no rights, were misunderstood and had so little control over their own lives. It's hard to understand from the our twenty-first century point of view, but people really did think that way. In Chaucer's poem Goodwife Alyson is portrayed as desiring one thing - mastery over men. But what she really desires most is mastery over her own life - to be able to make her own decisions and set her own life course. Unfortunately, though, sometimes when she's given the opportunity to make choices for herself, she doesn't choose very wisely.

This is an impeccably and thoroughly researched novel. Geoffrey Chaucer appears as a main character and many other real people feature throughout the book. The society of Bath and the many areas of London & Westminster are described in vivid detail. Eleanor/Alyson would have spoken middle English, essentially unintelligible to speakers of modern English, so she is given a modern voice ("What? Wait!). But she uses the words of her time in the context of their day. A glossary is given at the end of the novel, which is very helpful. As someone who studied Linguistics and has had a lifelong love and fascination with language in general and the English language in particular, this journey into the language of over 600 years ago was thoroughly enjoyable.

Eleanor's speech would probably be described as "salty" by today's standards. The good-old "C Word" features a couple of times, and its forebears (Q words) are peppered liberally throughout the text. But it's important to note that these words weren't considered crass or obscene at the time; they were a part of everyday speech and just general words for parts of the body or activities.

The novel ends with a extensive Author's Note which explains the context behind the novel and the author's research into the life and times of women in 14th Century England. I recommend sticking around for that - it's worth your time.

The Good Wife of Bath is a exploration of the life and loves of a woman in a time and place very far removed from our current times. I found the first half to be a rollicking good read, but things change, along with Eleanor's fortunes, in the second half. She has her ups and downs and times are not always kind to her. But the underlying theme of love overcoming adversity results in a rewarding, entertaining and satisfying novel. I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommend it to lovers of historical fiction, strong women and complex characters.

Thank you to Harlequin Australia, Karen Brooks and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. These thoughts are unbiased and entirely my own.

A superbly written ‘adaptation’ of history from a woman’s viewpoint! Congratulations and thank you to Karen Brooks, the Publisher and NetGalley for the chance to review this book.
Eleanor is outspoken and honest, she believes that women should have a voice and be treated as a man’s equal. Desperate to find true love, Eleanor’s marital life slowly unravels, following the death of her first husband. Perhaps Eleanor’s expectations of equality were a dream but boy did she did she keep striving, her heart of gold and caring for others was endearing, well done Eleanor! I loved all the characters, their connections and underlying love for each other made this book a joy to read!
The research was thorough and descriptions of a bygone era was exceptional, this book should be on everyone’s TBR pile!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

‘In her own words …’

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Set between 1364 and 1401, Ms Brooks takes Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’ out of the pages of the Canterbury Tales and breathes life into her. A woman mocked in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ becomes a strong woman trying to make her way in a world in which women were definitely second-class citizens. This is a world haunted by the plague of the Black Death, where religion is important and where poverty is rife.

And what an interesting woman Eleanor Cornfeld becomes! In her own first-person narration, we follow Eleanor’s life, from her first marriage at age 12 in 1364, through her four subsequent marriages, pilgrimages, business ventures and wild fluctuations in fortune. Geoffrey Chaucer himself appears in the novel, occasionally giving Eleanor advice along the way. Eleanor fights hard to gain control of her own life and to take care of those who are important to her. She might not win every battle, but she certainly tries hard. Join Eleanor as she negotiates the ordure flung at her with humour and cunning. Wonderfully written historical fiction and thoroughly recommended.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia, HQ for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

“The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story” by Karen Brooks is a rollicking, rambunctious ride through the Middle Ages telling the story of Eleanor, married off at 12 to an elderly farmer after an attempted assault by a priest and charting her journey both physically and spiritually through life. This includes five husbands of varying characteristics and demeanours, sometimes sympathetic, often difficult or downright dangerous.
Eleanor learns the meaning of friends and family, despite having no children of her own. Her maternal instinct and caring nature show through her love of her Godsib Alyson and various waifs, strays and servants she accumulates as she becomes an independent woman of strong beliefs and ambition. Life in the Middle Ages is shown in all its glorious colour and muck, fascinating in rich detail. Also helping the tale along are the letters written between Eleanor and her distant cousin Geoffrey Chaucer (no less). They are lifelong companions who have a strong bond despite being separated for long periods. Is Eleanor the inspiration for his Good Wife of Bath? We are certainly shown a woman of earthy tastes and great strength of character through tragedy, disaster and success (of sorts).
I loved this book and am now keen to read Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales” and see for myself. Karen Brooks has done a wonderful job and I appreciate the glossary and notes included.
Thanks to @netgalley and @harlequinaus for the ARC.

In this wonderful retelling of Chaucer's 'The Good Wife of Bath' from his Canterbury tales, the wife (Eleanor) gets to use her own voice to tell her side of the tale. And what a tale it is! Five husbands, the first at the tender age of twelve, each time helping to build her husband's wealth and each time on his death losing it to his heirs or to her next husband and having to start all over again. Her husbands come in many forms - old, young, kind, violent, unfaithful, impotent but she learns to live with each and make the most of what she has until she finally decides she has had enough of marriage and is better off fending for herself.

Geoffrey Chaucer appears in the wife's tale as a distant cousin and life-long friend, popping in and out of her life as his career progresses. They write wonderful letters to each other, especially when Eleanor embraces on pilgrimages, first to Canterbury, then later to Rome and Jerusalem. Eleanor is a great character, an intelligent, strong and courageous woman at a time when women were expected to be ruled by their men. The historical details of Chaucer's life and the way people lived, ate and loved in the fourteenth century were all well researched, as was the spinning and weaving of cloth from wool which aids Eleanor in making her marriages wealthy. Despite all the pain and hardship Eleanor has to endure before she realises what she needs to be happy, there is much wit and humour, and a little bawdiness, to enjoy in the engaging writing of a more feminist version of a classic tale.

I must admit that I came to this novel with only a general knowledge of The Canterbury Tales, not yet having read them. I knew, however, that the Wife of Bath is oft talked about. Was she good? Was she bad? Was Chaucer “secretly a feminist” or was he upholding traditional patriarchy?

In this novel, Karen Brooks tells the wife’s story in the first person, taking us through all five husbands and a very colourful life. Brooks cleverly inserts Chaucer into her story as a friend and cousin to Alyson. It is well written and immersive, and sometimes I briefly forgot it is indeed fiction. It felt more like a real autobiography. It’s a bit of an epic to get through, but really worth the read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I enjoyed this book far, far more than I was expecting to. In fact I loved it! I have always rather liked Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Karen Brooks does a fantastic job of bringing her to life in this "(mostly) true story."

It was interesting too to read a piece of historical fiction set in a period which is less often written about. The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story is set in the mid 1300s and it was not a comfortable time to be alive. The Black Death was always there to be reckoned with, sanitation in the cities was non existent, health care was primitive and poverty was rife. Against this backdrop Eleanor was legally married at the age of twelve to a man in his sixties. So begins her rise and fall and rise again in status and fortune.

Eleanor is an exceptional woman for her times. She never accepts the idea that women could be lesser than men and fights back in all the ways that she can. When fortune fails her she goes on pilgrimages and composes the most entertaining letters home to her cousin who happens to be Geoffrey Chaucer.

This is an intriguing slant on a possible background to the oh so famous The Canterbury Tales. Beautiful writing, many delightful characters, lots of humour and a great story all make this a very readable book. An easy five stars for me

I absolutely adored this retelling of the Wife of Bath's tale. Karen Brooks presents a character that's so full of life, of wit, of charm and strength. There is an impressive amount of detail and research in this book which really brings day to day medieval life to, well, life. I was completely immersed in Eleanor's story every step of the way. If you love historical fiction, and are interested in the retelling of the stories of characters you may already know, or indeed if you simply love a story where women have the chance to be heard, this is the perfect book for you.

Eleanor starts of as a fun, cheeky, likeable and capable young girl. Married at (to us) a startlingly young age, she is a joy to watch develop. Gradually, life wears her down, and by god she suffers through some trials and tribulations, but that cheeky wit is still always there somewhere. You begin to feel exhausted along with her as she's cheated out of her rights, her work, and justice. The shocking double standards women endured (and still do) are made painfully clear, and makes Eleanor's strength and will to go on even more impressive. Women had no recourse to help or justice unless they create it themselves, an Eleanor is an inspiration to so many around her.

The text also celebrates her sexuality, which I found refreshing. Society might not approve, but Eleanor is frank about her sexual appetite and you can't help but think "you go, girl!"

I loved the character and I loved the book. Highly recommended!

I love a story about reclaiming women - whether it's in history or fiction. Turns out I've read a few of these recently: <em><a href="https://randomalex.net/2021/05/15/wendy-darling/">Wendy, Darling</a></em> and <em><a href="https://randomalex.net/2021/04/17/forces-of-nature/">Forces of Nature</a></em> for example. And <em>The Good Wife of Bath</em> fits into that space: yes, it's <em>that</em> Wife of Bath, perhaps Chaucer's most contested character (from <em>The Canterbury Tales</em> anyway).

I have to admit it's a long, long time since I studied Chaucer at university, and I'm not sure I read all of the Wife's Prologue and Tale even then (I found the language really hard going, not going to lie). Which means that people who've never read any Chaucer (like, most of the population, surely) will be just fine with reading this. If you do know the Wife's original story I guess you get that extra frisson when a name is dropped, but it's not essential to the story. Honestly I got more of that from the fact Chaucer is a character in the book and I know bits and pieces about his life courtesy of <em>Who Murdered Chaucer?</em> which I recently re-read.

Anyway. The story is Eleanor's biography, basically beginning with her marriage at age 12 to a stranger several decades older than she is. Which is a deeply unpleasant thought, but it wasn't until I got to the Author's Note that it occurred to me that many people would find this shocking - the shocking-ness of not knowing this was at least sometimes a reality in the 14th century, I mean. 12 was the legal age of marriage in much of Europe for much of the Middle Ages, a fact I already knew and so I guess I've already dealt with being shocked by that. (I still don't find it a pleasant idea, don't worry.) In Chaucer's recounting, the Wife talks of having had five husbands, and how she has tried to have mastery over them. Two thirds of the book is Eleanor as wife: who she marries, why, and what her life is like in each circumstance. In many ways it's an exploration of the possibilities for a woman in the late 14th century: a good life or hard, a loving husband or abusive, allowed by her husband to participate in decision making or treated like a child, and the fact that her property becomes his property at marriage. And then the last third is Eleanor attempting to live as a <em>feme sole,</em> or sole woman - not connected to a man - which basically translates to "target".

What Eleanor doesn't personally experience, the women within her circle do. And overall that means that this book has some hard parts to read. Life for everyone in the Middle Ages had its brutality, especially compared to many of the things I take for granted in 21st century urban Australia; and the mid 14th century has the added bonus (?) of the Botch - what we call the Black Death. Life for women had its particular brutalities, and Brooks presents these as a part of life. Eleanor is at times very poor, and at times relatively wealthy; living on a farm or in town; respectable and not, surrounded by family and not. Brooks explores the lot. And by including Chaucer as a character, with as accurate a biography as is available, Brooks also includes bits of the contemporary politics (Lollards, John of Gaunt, 1381...)

The one thing I was left feeling a bit... confused by is the subtitle: A (Mostly) True Story. I love an unreliable narrator, and Eleanor certainly has the potential to be one. But nowhere is there a clear suggestion that she is being slippery, or fiddling with facts to make herself look better, or do anything other than present her story as she experienced it. So the suggestion that she is somehow being crafty in presenting her story doesn't make sense. I actually forgot it was the subtitle while reading, because it's just not relevant.

Overall, this is a great addition to the reclaiming of women's voices within fiction. It's fairly long; that's balanced by being very readable, and smartly paced: it's certainly not a trial to read. Definitely recommended to the historical fiction crowd, or if you were compelled to read any of Chaucer at any stage. </p>

This is an absolute saga of a novel, and such truly inspired and heartfelt literature that it earns a rarely-awarded full five stars from me.

I admit that I have not read Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, much less the Wife of Bath's prologue and tale, but the idea of giving a woman's voice to the tale of a bold and brash woman originally told by a man, intrigued me.

In Eleanor, her version of the Wife of Bath, Brooks has created a vivid and incredibly real woman of the late 1300s, married off at 12 to a man old enough to be her grandfather, who is merely trying to wrest some form of control over a life that society is determined belongs to men - her father, her husband(s), the powers that be - anyone but her own self. Eleanor is a spunky woman who refuses to take that lying down (so to speak), who no matter the trials and tribulations of her life (and of the former there are many), always maintains a thread of foolhardy idealism, the perhaps foolish and yet somehow admirable idea (for the time) that a woman deserves mastery over her own life and choices.

Our Good Wife marries five times and goes on a number of pilgrimages, as described in Chaucer's tale, and this book is Brooks' imagining of how that life played out. The heart and soul she breathes into Chaucer's bawdy caricature of a woman is frankly breathtaking. She's a flawed character who makes some flawed decisions, and yet she has so much heart, so much tenacity, you can't help but love her the way her found family does over the years. You can't help but admire the way she continues to claw herself from the muck of her life and refuses to allow herself to be buried by it.

This story is no quick or light-hearted read. This story is pain and death and poverty and constant struggle - and yet there's humour and love and a stubborn hopefulness too. And what is that if not life itself?

This novel has clearly been meticulously researched. It is very true to the time period, and importantly, to the struggles women in particular faced. There are elements that may be hard for the modern reader to swallow - the fact that Eleanor is married at 12 being one of them. The author seems worried about this in her final author's note, that people may think she's somehow condoning it. On the contrary, I think she would have done the women of this time period a disservice by glossing over or changing this for the modern palate. This was the truth of their lives, and I think we owe it to the women gone before us to acknowledge that.

It's hard to put into words how this story made me feel. How connected I felt with this character and all the others she pulled into her orbit. This is a tale that will stay with me a long time.

This was a wonderful read! A historical novel all about Chaucer’s Wife of Bath from The Canterbury Tales. It’s extremely well researched and using the basic details of her life provided by Chaucer in the prologue to the wife of Bath’s tale, Brooks has created a very believable character in Eleanor/Alyson, full of life and love. Chaucer himself appears throughout the book as Eleanors friend, all the details of his life being historically accurate. Chaucer’s character also provides a way for all the historical events in the wider world to appear in the story briefly, from the various kings, their wives and mistresses, the peasants revolt and so on.
The book is well written and told in first person, structured between narratives of Eleanors five marriages interspersed with letters written to Chaucer from the pilgrimages she went on between husbands. The language is full of wit and humour, bawdy where appropriate and the hardships of her life are told unflinchingly. I’m going to miss these characters now I’ve finished!

I wasn't expecting to like this so much, my first 5 star of the year. I picked it up on a whim as I read the Canterbury Tales last year in the lockdown.

A full and rich retelling of Eleanor, the Wife of Bath's life - her 5 husbands, her pilgrimages and her relationship with the Poet, Geoffrey Chaucer.

We follow Eleanor from 12 years old, no more than a child, being married off to a 61 year old farmer to avoid the shame after a priest attempts to rape her after church - until her own "old age" as an elderly woman of 40 with fallen and beaten women in her employ, living out her years as a widow in London.

A touch over 500 pages, you can't help but fall into fondness for Eleanor and come along for her journey - regardless of her faults, and there are many. A feminist view of life in the 14th century, it touches on the social hierarchy of the day, the Plague, local commerce and the functions of marriage in society.

A gripping novel. I was in this incredible tale right from the start. This is my very first review as I prefer to read through other reviews and go "Yeah, that's what I thought".

I won't give a synopsis as those familiar with Chaucer's masterpiece already know it. Mayhap it would also spoil the reader's experience. This book was a real page-turner, all the characters were depicted so well - I actually "lived" in those streets and laneways, felt such raw emotions through the good and bad. Karen Brooks took me to the 14th century - I read this in two sittings, which included checking out google-maps to wander streets. A Vodafone store now sits on one of the laneways.

I am in awe and believe that Karen Brooks has done justice to the Good Wife of Bath.
It is one of my top books of this year, along with 84 Charing Cross Road,
Dictionary of Lost Words and Shuggie Bain.

I have read and thoroughly enjoyed one other of Karen Brooks "The Chocolate Maker's Wife".

Many thanks to Netgalley for my very first freebie prior to publication.

I look forward to re-reading the published version. Reading Chaucer's original tale was a pleasure thanks to Karen Brooks.

This magnificent story of Eleanor/Alyson and the role they had in Chaucer's life has left me breathless and wanting more! It is beautifully written and researched. It is not often that I find myself soaking up the beautiful language and wanting to learn more.

The Good Wife of Bath: A (Mostly) True Story’ is another wonderfully well researched entertaining book by Karen Brooks. Ms Brooks rarely disappoints and this is another masterpiece in her collection of historical fiction titles.
The Wife of Bath's Tale is among the best-known of Geoffrey Chaucer's ‘Canterbury Tales’ and Ms Brooks takes this tale and retells it from the Wife of Bath’s perspective. A woman’s tale from a woman’s view in the Middle Ages, a truly unique retelling. It begins with the story of Eleanor, who is married at 12 and sets herself on a path of making her way in the world. As is the case in this period of time her path is determined to a large extent by men. It is a truly entertaining read with adventure, humour and quite a bit of bawdiness. Highly recommended .