An 18th Century Soapstar? (Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire - Amanda Foreman)

Member Name: Elli

Product:	Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire - Amanda Foreman
Date:	17/05/02 (1026 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A fascinating true story

Disadvantages: Gives you strange dreams of men in breeches

Her face stared at me. A vibrant, glowing face, it was full of presence and character. I drew closer. Ah, so this was the famous portrait by Gainsborough. “The Duchess of Devonshire”, a radiant picture of an eighteenth century lady, was displayed in one of the Chatsworth House rooms, and attracted every passer-by.

Later on in the gift shop, I spotted the same picture on the front of a paperback, and discovered that this book had won a Whitbread Biography of the Year Award in 1998. I decided to buy it and find out more about Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

The author, Amanda Foreman, was born in London in 1968. At twenty five, she was supposed to researching for her doctorate, but during the course of her research became sidetracked by Georgiana. Her original doctorate abandoned, the next four years were spent researching and writing the book, travelling all over the country to find original sources.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, was a famous person in her own time, being not only the wife of a Duke, but an important influence on political thinking. She was a supporter of the Whig party, as well as being a celebrated leader of fashion. Several biographies had been written about her, but Amanda Foreman felt none of them did her justice. There was no difficulty in finding material. In fact there was masses of it, all over the country. There were, for instance, over 1000 letters in Chatsworth House alone! One major problem was that Georgiana’s friends and descendants were heavy handed in censoring letters. Whole sections had been inked out, and many letters were completely destroyed.

The extensive research which produced this book certainly shows. There are thirty pages of footnotes, and a comprehensive index, and the narrative is not light reading. But it is beautifully written, and pulls you into the story of Georgiana with ease. There are enough colour plates and illustrations to back up
the text and to bring the characters to life.

How can Georgiana’s life be described? Well, it was very exciting. At a very young age she married a duke, but the marriage was loveless, the duke preferring her best friend. An inveterate gambler and a leading member of the “ton” (fashionable society in the eighteenth century), Georgiana was lampooned in all the papers of the time. Do you remember those eighteenth century cartoons of ladies with powdered hair teased into fantastic three foot high creations, complete with birds’ nests, feathers and a mouse or two? Well, they were making fun of Georgiana and her friends. Life became much more serious, and tragic, later on. She was a contemporary of many important social, royal and political figures. I don’t want to spoil the book for you by giving too many details, but I can promise you that Georgiana’s life had all the elements of the most exciting soap story!

I was intrigued when reading the introduction, because Amanda Foreman describes so convincingly the difficulties a biographer faces in coming to a balanced view point about her subject. It is apparently easy to become overly sympathetic when dipping into letters and diaries because (obviously) they are written in the first person and therefore quite naturally contain an element of self-deception. She describes it as the literary equivalent of the “Stockholm Syndrome”, where hostages begin to feel sympathetic towards their captors. It is dangerous because it leads to being tempted to ignore unwelcome evidence. The Syndrome struck Amanda Foreman early on in her research and she found herself becoming furious on Georgiana’s behalf when reading a nasty letter from one of her rivals. Luckily as the research progressed, Amanda Foreman was able to become much more objective. I loved reading about how the idea for the book was born. The chapters in the book are entitled: Debutante; Politic
s; Exile; and Georgiana Redux; and cover the main periods in Georgiana’s life.

Did I enjoy the book? Oh yes. It is beautifully written, in a flowing style, and a lovely meaty true story. I appreciated the illustrations and colour plates, though, just so that I could bring the characters to life in my mind. It is not a book to doze over last thing at night. On several occasions, I went up to bed for a good long read, only for my husband to find me twenty minutes later fast asleep clutching my Georgiana book, with the light still on! It actually took me several weeks to read it, in between bouts of various lightweight fiction, none of which were so satisfying.

The book does not include much of what I would call domestic history, such as descriptions of meals, clothes, or what life was like for other members of the Devonshire household. It would have been six inches thick if it had. But for those of you who like medical dramas, there are one or two “Ugh, how could they?” moments. It is an enjoyable in depth study of the life of Georgiana, and has made me determined to discover more about the world of the eighteenth century.

I’m now just wondering how I can stop the current vivid dreams I am having, with me as the bewigged and powdered heroine fighting off Whig gentlemen wearing extremely tight breeches!



Price: £8.99
ISBN: 0-00-655016-9
Publisher: Flamingo

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