The Duchess: Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Amanda Foreman - Softcover

Foreman, Amanda

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0007285752 ISBN 13: 9780007285754

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2008

Synopsis

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About this title

Review:

Georgiana Spencer was, in a sense, an 18th-century "It Girl". She came from one of England's richest and most landed families, and married into another. She was, beautiful, sensitive, and extravagant. Acquainted fairly young with Charles James Fox, her move from parties to Parties led her to become the intimate of ministers and princes, and she canvassed assiduously for the Whig cause, most famously in the Westminster election of 1784. By turns she was caricatured and fawned on by the press, and she provided the inspiration for Lady Teazle in Sheridan's School For Scandal. But, luckily for her biographer, she also had weaknesses that were to taint her life.

As gin gripped the masses, so gambling thralled the aristocracy. By 1784 Georgiana owed "many, many, many thousands", and the creditors she acquired dogged her until her death, but the sterility of her marriage meant that she never came close to disclosing the magnitude of her debts. Amanda Foreman describes astutely the mess that was personal relationships for the aristocratic subculture (Georgiana and the Duke engaged for many years in a ménage à trois with Lady Elizabeth Fraser, who inveigled her way into his bed and her heart). She is, by her own admission, a little in love with her subject, which can lead to occasional lapses of perspective, but generally it adds zest to a narrative built on, rather than burdened by, scholarship, that is at once accessible and learned. An impressive debut, in every sense. --David Vincent

Review:

‘Mesmerizing.’ Antonia Fraser, Literary Review

‘Well-written, extensively researched and highly readable... Gripping.’ Stella Tillyard, Mail on Sunday

‘An outstanding debut by a young biographer fully in control of her sources, and with an easy and elegant writing style.’ Roy Strong, Sunday Times

‘A pungent, intimate blend of biography and history...a provocative contribution to our understanding of women of the past.’ Jenny Uglow, Independent

‘Packed with fascinating information and grippingly good.’ Lisa Jardine

‘Real-life glamour, peppered with a menage a trois and a dose of depression...Curl up and devour it.’ Elle

‘A gorgeous Whig romp...[and] a serious, as well as seriously enjoyable, historical biography.’ Antonia Fraser, Sunday Times

‘Excellent and fascinating.’ Sunday Telegraph

‘From this very entertaining account emerges a vibrant picture of late-eighteenth-century life and politics, and the portrait of a rare and highly talented woman.’ Observer

‘A sparkling biography.’ Marie Claire

‘Brilliantly researched, compellingly told, this is biography of the first order.’ Daily Telegraph

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0007285752
• ISBN 13: 9780007285754
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496