Romeo Montague is handsome and charming and the first time he sees young Rosaline Capulet, who has secretly snuck into his family's masquerade summer ball, he falls instantly in love.
At first Rosaline is unsure of Romeo's attentions but with her father determined that she join the nunnery, Romeo offers her the chance of a different life. Gradually he convinces her that only true love could make him feel this way, that he is enraptured by her beauty. Indeed, he cannot live without her!
And so begins the story of Romeo and Rosaline. These star-crossed lovers must keep everything hidden from Rosaline's family, at least until they are wed. But when a destitute young girl appears, claiming to be carrying Romeo's child, Rosaline starts to doubt all that she has been told. And as whispers of more girls reach her ears, what once felt like a courtship begins to feel more like a pursuit.
As Rosaline recognises Romeo for the villain he truly is, his gaze turns suddenly towards Rosaline's adored and beautiful cousin, thirteen-year old Juliet.
Can Rosaline save Juliet, who falls under Romeo's spell just as quickly as she did? Or can this story only ever end one way?The subversive, powerful untelling of Shakespeare's best known tale. A fierce, forgotten voice: this is Rosaline's story.
Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons is published today, 3 August 2023 by Manilla Press. As part of this #RandomThingsTours blog tour, I am delighted to share an extract from the book with you today.
Extract from Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons
The funeral was held at dawn and little more than an hour after Madonna Emelia Capulet passed out of this world. Rosaline trailed behind the bier, disconsolate with loss. Several times, she had to be chided by her father and brother to stay further back as the corpse – her beloved mother – was pestilent.
The only porters they’d found who were willing to pull the bier were filthy and reeking fellows, not much better than beggars, and even they had to be bribed prodigiously. Rosaline had been forbidden from washing the body. A priest had come, clutching a nosegay of herbs to his mouth, and tossed holy water upon the dead woman’s face, before scuttling out again. There had been no time to find a golden or purple grave cloth to wrap her in. No one wailed the lament. No relatives gathered at the house or followed the family to the tomb. The mourning party was pitiful, the other Capulets and their neighbours cowering behind locked doors, sniffing posies and oranges studded with cloves to ward off the plague, or offering up frantic prayers and hasty confessions. Instead, there was only Rosaline, her father, who wept openly, leaning heavily on Rosaline’s arm and her brother, Valentio.
‘You deserved more,’ she murmured to her mother.
One of the porters stopped abruptly to scratch at the fleas in his groin, fumbling and dropping the handle of the bier.
‘You oaf! You wretch!’ roared Masetto Capulet, who would have kicked out at him if he hadn’t feared that the man would drop the body entirely.
Rosaline hid a smile. Her mother would have found it funny; she’d delighted in the wicked. Two stray dogs had started to follow their pathetic little troop, perhaps in hope of scraps. She’d count them too. Made the numbers almost respectable, even if the congregants themselves were peculiar. She would not mind the absent neighbours: hypocrites and liars all. Mama had sent them birthing gifts and wiped their tears and their arses when they were babes, but she had not loved them. She loved me. And I am here. At this thought, Rosaline bit her lip hard to stop from crying, and tasted blood.
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Natasha Solomons is the author of seven internationally bestselling novels, including Mr Rosenblum's List, The Novel in the Viola, which was chosen for the Richard & Judy Book Club, and I, Mona Lisa.
Her work has been translated into seventeen languages, and Fair Rosaline is her latest work.
She lives in Dorset with her family.
#BeforeJuliet
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