Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Sex, intrigue and adultery in the world of high politics and huge wealth in late eighteenth-century England. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was one of the most flamboyant and influential women of the eighteenth century. The great-great-great-great aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, she was variously a compulsive gambler, a political savante and operator of the highest order, a drug addict, an adulteress and the darling of the common people. This authoritative, utterly absorbing book… Product details and pricing info |
|---|
71 Customer Reviews Posted
- Mixed reaction
- I have mixed feelings about this book. The author did an expert job researching Georgiana and the times in which she lived. (I believe this book came about as a result of her PhD work on the same subject.) It is chock full of historic and political details - which will delight some but, unfortunately, bore others to tears.
Much of the book is about Georgiana's gambling problem, her subsequent debts (in the millions), the lengths she took to hide them from her family and how she continually borrowed money from her friends. I found the topic of her continuing debt somewhat tedious and would have put the book down early on but because I plan to see the movie, "The Duchess," I wanted to read the book first.
Although compulsive gambling was one of Georgian's characters flaws, you have to give the woman credit because she perservered and many times transcended her flaws in pursuit of her passions - primarily politics.
In the first part of the book, I found all the quoted passages from letters and journals distracting. Sometimes the telling of the story through the letters made the story hard to follow. Georgianna and her best friend, Bess, flitted from man to man and references to "the duke" or to "him" in their letters sometimes left you wondering which duke or which "him" they meant.
The writing style gets better when the author gets to the Regency period because it's a more straightforward narrative and the author doesn't rely so much on letters to tell the story.
I would have loved to have more realistic details about the emotions of the wife and mistress while coexisting in the same house and continuing to have other lovers, but maybe there just wasn't that much information to keep it historically accurate. I resented spending so much time having to read about the two women's other interests in incredible superficial subjects.
All in all - the book has its strengths and its weakness, but I came away thinking the story could have been told better in much less time. - 2009-01-02, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Great book
- I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very well written. I look forward to more books by this author.
- 2008-12-30, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire
- I found this book to be beautifully written and extremely well researched. I have read it twice cover to cover.
- 2008-12-22, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Georgiana boring or bad writing?
- I am an enthusiastic Anglophile and have read countless biographies about British nobles and royalty by a variety of authors. I hadn't heard about Amanda Foreman or Georgiana until the movie came out in the fall. I saw the movie and obtained the book shortly after.
I tried in vain to struggle through the first 100 pages until finally giving up before reaching page 200. I kept thinking/saying to myself, "it has got to get better, there were so many good reviews! Come on, you love this kind of stuff!"
But sadly, it didn't get better. Whether this is because Georgiana on the page was much less interesting than Georgiana on the screen or because Amanda Foreman writes well but not in an engaging way is hard to say. I lean toward the latter, as I found myself skipping pages at a time filled with anecdotes about Georgiana's peers and in particular, the political situation. I have read books on Kings (Charles II by Antonia Fraser) and even the politically turbulent reigns of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette that contained far fewer boring, verbose passages about politics.
Ms. Foreman certainly did her research and I do not argue that the book is very detailed and no doubt thorough. Engaging? Not so much. If you are interested in Georgiana on a cursory level, see the movie and leave the book (which is something hard for me to say as I almost always enjoy the books more than movies!) - 2008-12-22, 1 of 1 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Will turn you into a history buff!
- AMAZING read! I have never been interested in History of any sort before and afte reading a bit about her on Wikipedia I couldn't wait to learn more! She is fascinating, flaws and all! This book gave a wonderful outline of the time period, the rulers in charge and the goverment, but loaded with interesting facts and how her life had impacted so much of that time period. It proved to me that times were not too different back then as they are now with sex, drugs, affairs, addictions and celebrity obsession. I couldn't put this book down and after finishing it you'll want to look for book on her fascinating friends and aquaintences as well! It's a must buy even for the uninterested in history, couldn't tell you the dates of the civil war type of person
- 2008-11-16, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
