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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 941.07092
EAN: 9780375753831
ISBN: 0375753834
Label: Modern Library
Manufacturer: Modern Library
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 512
Publication Date: January 16, 2001
Publisher: Modern Library
Release Date: January 16, 2001
Studio: Modern Library

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Alternate Versions: Click to Display

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Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
Georgiana Spencer was, in a sense, an 18th-century It Girl. She came from one of England's richest and most landed families (the late Princess Diana was a Spencer too) and married into another. She was beautiful, sensitive, and extravagant--drugs, drink, high-profile love affairs, and even gambling counted among her favorite leisure-time activities. Nonetheless, she quickly moved from a world dominated by social parties to one focused on political parties. The duchess was an 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 the character of Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's famous play The School for Scandal. But her weaknesses marked the last part of her life. By 1784, for one, Georgiana owed "many, many, many thousands," and her creditors dogged her until her death.

Biographer Amanda Foreman describes astutely the mess that surrounded the personal relationships of 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 the duke's bed and the duchess's heart). Foreman 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, Amazon.co.uk

Product Description:
The winner of Britain's prestigious Whitbread Prize and a bestseller there for months, this wonderfully readable biography offers a rich, rollicking picture of late-eighteenth-century British aristocracy and the intimate story of a woman who for a time was its undisputed leader.

Lady Georgiana Spencer was the great-great-great-great-aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, and was nearly as famous in her day. In 1774, at the age of seventeen, Georgiana achieved immediate celebrity by marrying one of England's richest and most influential aristocrats, the Duke of Devonshire. Launched into a world of wealth and power, she quickly became the queen of fashionable society, adored by the Prince of Wales, a dear friend of Marie-Antoinette, and leader of the most important salon of her time. Not content with the role of society hostess, she used her connections to enter politics, eventually becoming more influential than most of the men who held office.

Her good works and social exploits made her loved by the multitudes, but Georgiana's public success, like Diana's, concealed a personal life that was fraught with suffering. The Duke of Devonshire was unimpressed by his wife's legendary charms, preferring instead those of her closest friend, a woman with whom Georgiana herself was rumored to be on intimate terms. For over twenty years, the three lived together in a jealous and uneasy ménage à trois, during which time both women bore the Duke's children—as well as those of other men.

Foreman's descriptions of Georgiana's uncontrollable gambling, all- night drinking, drug taking, and love affairs with the leading politicians of the day give us fascinating insight into the lives of the British aristocracy in the era of the madness of King George III, the American and French revolutions, and the defeat of Napoleon.

A gifted young historian whom critics are already likening to Antonia Fraser, Amanda Foreman draws on a wealth of fresh research and writes colorfully and penetratingly about the fascinating Georgiana, whose struggle against her own weaknesses, whose great beauty and flamboyance, and whose determination to play a part in the affairs of the world make her a vibrant, astonishingly contemporary figure.




Rating: - PARTY LIKE STUDIO 54
This is the damndest book I've ever read! A truly remarkable biography about a truly remarkable person. Georgianna and her posse make Steve Rubell's posse look like pikers. I mean. Running up $6 million in gambling debts! If she were alive today she would be trailed by the paparazzi. Her life reads like a recent Vanity Fair profile.
And how in the world were all the correspondences saved?
So good, I bought Tom Jones for another perspective on 18th century English dissipation.

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Rating: - 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 ... Read More

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Rating: - Great book
I really enjoyed reading this book. It was very well written. I look forward to more books by this author.

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Rating: - Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire
I found this book to be beautifully written and extremely well researched. I have read it twice cover to cover.

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Rating: - 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 ... Read More

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