Catherine (1963 novel)

Catherine: One Love is Enough, first published in France as Il suffit d'un amour is the first of a series of seven historical romance novels written by Juliette Benzoni between 1963–1979. It focuses on the fictional Catherine Legoix, daughter of a goldsmith in Paris at the time of the Hundred Years' War and her seemingly hopeless love for the arrogant Arnaud de Montsalvy, Lord of the Châtaignerie in Auvergne and Captain in the service of Charles VII of France. From there starts a love story that will span through the events of that time. Her adventures in a France torn apart by civil war and still suffering English occupation fascinated millions of readers all over the world in the sixties and seventies. As a result the novels were translated into more than twenty languages and thirty million copies were sold. In 1973 Benzoni won the Literature prizePrix Alexandre-Dumas for her works on Catherine.

In 1965 a song was composed by Paul Amar, text by J. Benzoni, called: Catherine, il suffit d'un amour, which was introduced in the television show "Ni figue, ni raisin". In 1969 the first two books were adapted for cinema by Bernard Broderie () with the title Catherine, il suffit d'un amour (). There followed in 1986 a successful French television series: Catherine directed by Marion Sarraut ()

Vincent Meylan, journalist, historian and author, wrote 2016 in his obituary about Juliette Benzoni : "The Queen is dead" Catherine, the first heroine, the one with whom everything began half a century ago, is crying in her chamber in the Montsalvy donjon ... And it does not matter if I know the end of all her books! So, if you are like me, a little or very sad about the death of Queen Juliette, reread her 86 novels and stories...

The novel is set in France at the time of the Hundred Years' War, during the war between the Armagnacs and the Burgundians. It begins in 1413 in Paris and continues in Dijon at the court of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, Bruges, Montsalvy, Auvergne, Orléans, Loire Valley, Burgos, Palace of the Alhambra, and Luxembourg. The series ends in 1437 at the castle of Montsalvy. Catherine goes through many adventures; men fall desperately in love with her, her life is constantly in danger, and she is hunted down as a criminal and condemned to die more than once, until she finally becomes the beloved wife of Arnaud de Montsalvy, Lord of the Châtaignerie in Auvergne and a captain in the service of King Charles VII.