Known for the vast amount of research she put into her books, incredibly vivid details, and dark romances, Anya Seton’s historical fiction books—or biographical novels, as she preferred they be called—are still referenced today. She even inspired some historical romance writers, including Philippa Gregory, who wrote introductions for five of the reissues of Seton’s books. Her books tend to be sweeping romances, set in America or the United Kingdom, that include women who are imprisoned or limited in some way, and tyrannical men. Many of her novels were on bestseller lists and later adapted into films.
Seton was the daughter of two ambitious parents: Boy Scouts cofounder Ernest Thompson Seton and suffragette Grace Gallatin Seton Thompson. Ann Seton (later Anya) was born in New York City in 1904, got a private education, and traveled the world with her parents before she was married in 1923 for the first time. Her traveling inspired much of her writing, especially her father’s birthplace of South Shields, England. She wrote a total of 13 books in her lifetime. Below are the ones that we think you shouldn’t skip.
My Theodosia
Theodosia is the dutiful daughter of controversial Vice President Aaron Burr. The story begins on her 17th birthday and follows Theodosia’s courtship with Southerner Joseph Alston—a man Theodosia doesn’t love, but her father wants her to marry for his own political and financial gain.
She meets future explorer Meriwether Lewis and they have an instant connection. Theodosia must choose between her heart and her responsibility to her father. She also must figure out how to live with her choice, as her father suffers political setbacks and threats to his life.
The Hearth and Eagle
Inspired by Seton’s research on her ancestors, The Hearth and Eagle revolves around a historic inn in Marblehead, Massachusetts, which is an old New England fishing village. Romantic heroine Hesper Honeywood is expected by her stoic mother to fall in line, sacrificing her dreams to her future husband’s and maintaining the inn.
Secretly, Hesper dreams of passionate romance and a bigger life than her ultra-religious feminine forbears. When she meets an avant-garde painter, she sees her chance at breaking the mold, though she doesn’t yet know the ups and downs that’ll come with it.
The Turquoise
Santa Fe Cameron finds herself an orphan at a young age in the early 1850s. She’s taken in reluctantly by her late parents’ neighbors and raised in a household of indifference. Now a rebellious teenager, Fey, as she has renamed herself, finds a way out of her hometown and away from the West Coast with Terry Dillion, a sketchy traveling salesman.
She marries him and they slowly make their way to New York City by selling her husband’s dubious medicine. However, Fey’s migration to New York City is not the new start that she had wished for. Fey must use all of her resources and intelligence to make a life for herself (and her unborn child) in this sweeping epic.
The Winthrop Woman
The Winthrop Woman is based on real-life settler and co-founder of Greenwich, Connecticut, Elizabeth Fonce. When her story begins, she is a hotheaded young girl in England, working in her father’s apothecary shop in the late 1620s, with many suitors. Although her family has deep, strict Protestant roots, Elizabeth has rejected them after being beaten by her uncle Withthrop for blasphemy.
Her story is a series of twists and turns, which include multiple husbands and an Atlantic crossing. She follows her heart, which repeatedly gets her into conflict with Puritans and even connects her household to witchcraft. Elizabeth must rise again and again after each setback to find her place in the world.
Green Darkness
Newlyweds Celia, an American heiress, and Richard Marsdon, an English aristocrat, decide to settle in his ancestral home in Sussex. After their arrival, everything goes awry. Celia starts having visions and mental breakdowns, while Richard has begun to act very strange. Celia’s mother enlists the help of a guru to figure out what’s ailing them. The guru advises that the couple is being haunted by their past lives, and Celia must go back 400 years to fix it if she wants her marriage to survive.
In this time-jumping romance, Celia meets her counterpart, Celia de Bohun, in Tudor England, who is in a forbidden and doomed relationship with family chaplain Stephen Marsdon. In this era of constantly shifting religious laws and political intrigue, how can they get a second chance?
Dragonwyck
A humble farmer’s daughter, Miranda Wells, is called up by her rich cousin to be a companion to his six-year-old daughter in 1844. As Miranda walks up to Dragonwyck, a large, stately manor near Hudson, New York, she realizes she has never seen such riches. She is enamored not only with her married cousin Nicholas’s lifestyle but also Nicholas himself.
But life is not what it seems. When Nicholas’s wife suddenly falls ill and dies, Nicholas asks Miranda to be his wife. The story takes a dark turn, examining abusive relationships, the patroon system, and class riots that dominated this time period.
Avalon
Avalon weaves early history, myth, forbidden romance, and epic journeys. In 972, Romieux de Provence, descendent of King Alfred and Charlemagne, left Burgundy for England and ended up shipwrecked. Luckily, he’s rescued by a charming young woman named Meriwether, who claims to be a descendent of King Arthur. When Romieux finds out the truth of her real heritage, he is sworn to secrecy.
The two go through tumultuous times in multiple royal courts and several countries, including Iceland and Greenland. But the question is: Will Meriwether’s secret lineage remain so through it all?
Foxfire
During the Great Depression, socialite Amanda Lawrence decided to leave her glamorous world in New York City behind for mining engineer Jonathan “Dart” Dartland, who she has fallen madly in love with. In this historical romance, she moves to Lodestone, Arizona, where Dart goes back to working in the mines.
Amanda is not used to living on a budget with a small social life, as the other wives shun her for her background. As Dart and Amanda’s marriage gets rockier, her family encourages her to break it off and marry her ex-boyfriend. But an old myth about hidden gold might just save their relationship.
Katherine
Katherine is Anya Seton’s most famous novel and is considered one of the pioneering High Medieval romances. It follows Katherine de Roet, who doesn’t seem like she’s meant for greatness. Her sister is a lady-in-waiting to Queen Philippa and that is her only connection for a good marriage. She marries practically, and after her first husband dies, she catches the eye of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster.
Through her love affair, she ultimately becomes one of the most notorious mistresses in English history. The novel is still considered very well researched and an accurate depiction of life during the 14th century.
Devil Water
Devil Water is based on the story of Jacobite rebel Charles Radcliffe and takes place in 1715. His daughter Jenny, who was born to a woman of low social standing, fled England and immigrated to America. Jenny ends up settling in Virginia, where she suffers in the New World and misses her father, though she tries to make a life for herself without him. The story bounces back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, culminating in the final Jacobite stand in London.
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