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 presents a mesmerizing picture of a fascinating world of political and sexual intrigues, grand houses, huge parties, glamour and great wealth -- always on the edge of being squandered by the excesses and scandals of individuals.
Brilliantly researched, compellingly told, this is biography of the first order, and now a major film starring Keira Knightley & Ralph Fiennes.
Reviews
* ‘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
* ‘ ‘Packed with fascinating information and grippingly good’ Lisa Jardine, BBC History magazine * ‘Real-life glamour, peppered with a menage a trois and a dose of depression ... Curl up and devour it.’ Elle
* ‘ ‘Excellent and fascinating’ Sunday Telegraph ‘
*"On 8 May 1777 crowds of theatregoers could have been seen pouring into Drury Lane for the first night of R B Sheridan's new play, The School for Scandal. Among them was Georgiana Spencer, the first Earl of Spencer's 19-year-old daughter, who had married the rich Duke of Devonshire some three years before. 'When she appeared,' a French diplomat wrote of her, 'every eye was turned towards her; when absent, she was the subject of universal conversation.' She was also, in her own words, 'giddy and vain' and amusing, wildly extravagant and utterly captivating. She numbered among her close friends Sheridan, Charles James Fox, the Prince Regent, her husband's mistress Lady Elizabeth Foster, and the future prime minister, Charles Grey, by whom she had a daughter. An opponent of Pitt's administration, she canvassed vigorously on behalf of the Whigs. Yet even such a Tory as Samuel Johnson was captivated by Georgiana's charms and was more than content to have the Duchess 'hanging on his sentences and contending for the nearest place to his chair'. To this delightful woman Foreman does full justice in a highly enjoyable book - as entertaining as it is scholarly. Review by Christopher Hibbert Editor's note: Christopher Hibbert is a historian and author of Nelson: A Personal History, George IV, The Virgin Queen: The Personal History of Elizabeth I, The French Revolution and Africa Explored." (Kirkus UK)
Accolades
Winner of Whitbread Prize (Biography) 1998.
Winner of Whitbread Book of the Year Award Biography Category 1998.
Author Biography
Amanda Foreman is the daughter of Carl Foreman (director of High Noon, The Bridge On the River Kwai, Born Free). She was born in 1968, grew up on film sets and is now a research fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She has written for various publications, including the New York Times.
