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Book Spotlight: The Countess by Rebecca Johns & Giveaway

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To celebrate the paperback release on September 27  of The Countess by Rebecca Johns I thought I’d spotlight the novel and offer up a copy for giveaway.  This novel sounds fantastic and most definitely one that captures my interest so I’m eagerly awaiting my own copy to read.  However for now let’s take a look at what the book is about and meet the author.  Be sure to check out the giveaway as well!

 

About The Countess by Rebecca Johns

Was the “Blood Countess” history’s first and perhaps worst female serial killer? Or did her accusers create a violent fiction in order to remove this beautiful, intelligent, ambitious foe from the male-dominated world of Hungarian politics?

In 1611, Countess Erzsébet Báthory, a powerful Hungarian noblewoman, stood helpless as masons walled her inside her castle tower, dooming her to spend her final years in solitary confinement. Her crime—the gruesome murders of dozens of female servants, mostly young girls tortured to death for displeasing their ruthless mistress. Her opponents painted her as a bloodthirsty škrata—a witch—a portrayal that would expand to grotesque proportions through the centuries.

In this riveting dramatization of Erzsébet Báthory’s life, the countess tells her story in her own words, writing to her only son—a final reckoning from his mother in an attempt to reveal the truth behind her downfall. Countess Báthory describes her upbringing in one of the most powerful noble houses in Hungary, recounting in loving detail her devotion to her parents and siblings as well as the heartbreak of losing her father at a young age. She soon discovers the price of being a woman in sixteenth-century Hungary as her mother arranges her marriage to Ferenc Nádasdy, a union made with the cold calculation of a financial transaction. Young Erzsébet knows she has no choice but to accept this marriage even as she laments its loveless nature and ultimately turns to the illicit affections of another man.

Seemingly resigned to a marriage of convenience and a life of surreptitious pleasure, the countess surprises even herself as she ignites a marital spark with Ferenc through the most unromantic of acts: the violent punishment of an insolent female servant. The event shows Ferenc that his wife is no trophy but a strong, determined woman more than capable of managing their vast estates during Ferenc’s extensive military campaigns against the Turks. Her naked assertion of power accomplishes what her famed beauty could not: capturing the love of her husband.

The countess embraces this new role of loving wife and mother, doing everything she can to expand her husband’s power and secure her family’s future. But a darker side surfaces as Countess Báthory’s demand for virtue, obedience, and, above all, respect from her servants takes a sinister turn. What emerges is not only a disturbing, unflinching portrait of the deeds that gave Báthory the moniker “Blood Countess,” but an intimate look at the woman who became a monster.

Buy The Countess on Amazon.com or Amazon.ca

 

About Rebecca Johns

Rebecca Johns’s first novel, Icebergs, was a finalist for the 2007 Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction and a recipient of the Michener-Copernicus Award. Her second, The Countess—a fictionalization of the life of Elizabeth Bathory, the “Blood Countess”—was published in October 2010 from Crown Books. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, the Harvard Review, the Mississippi Review, the Chicago Tribune, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, Ladies’ Home Journal, Self, and Seventeen, among others. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the Missouri School of Journalism, she teaches in the English Department at DePaul University in Chicago.

Rebecca’s website
Rebecca’s blog

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS

I have one copy of The Countess by Rebecca Johns to share with my readers.  To enter…

  • For 1 entry leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thank you, and please let me know in your comment so I can pass the extra entry on to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.

This giveaway is open to US and Canadian residents only (no PO boxes) and I will draw for the winner on Saturday, October 22/11.  Good luck everyone!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. I’ve been eyeing this book for a while, it sounds fascinating, as does the real woman. I’d love to enter the giveaway. I’m an existing follower (Sarah Williams)

    booklove (at) sawcatsverse (dot) com

  3. I’ve never read anything about Elizabeth Bathory. This sounds fascinating. Thanks for the giveaway.
    And, I am a Google follower.

  7. I have always been fascinated by Bathory, and would love the chance to win this one and read it. It is just such a bizarre story. Thanks for the excellent giveaway, Dar! I really hope I win this one!

    zibilee(at)figearo(dot)net

  10. This sounds very interesting. I’ve not read much about Bathory. Thanks for the chance to win!

    I’m a follower. 😉

    Happy weekend to you and Sammy!

  14. Oh my goodness! She sounds like my old boss! lol I would love to read more about Countess Báthory.
    mamabunny13 at gmail dot com

  20. Wow! I really want to read this book. I love historical fiction like crazy. I have never read anything about Hungarian royality to say the least about Countess Báthory.

    CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com

  33. When I first saw the book I thought it would be about a life of a countess. I was partly right, I didn’t know it has such a dark, sinister, yet intriguing side to it! Wow, a female serial killer in that time. I would like some insight into her mindset.

  39. I think THE COUNTESS sounds like an incredibly fascinating historical character. I’d love to read more about her. Thanks for the chance to win a copy of Ms. Johns’ book.