Dianaworld
An Obsession
-
- $20.99
Publisher Description
A fascinating new perspective on the life and afterlife of Diana, Princess of Wales, the planet’s all-purpose cultural icon.
Over the last forty years, the mythology of Princess Diana has turned the woman who was born Diana Spencer into a symbol for almost anything. From a harbinger of Brexit populism, an all-American consumer capitalist, and the savior of the British aristocracy, to a catalyst for #MeToo and—in the words of one superfan—“the biggest punk that’s come out of England,” Diana connects with a wider array of people than any member of the royal family ever has. We feel so familiar with Diana that it seems crushingly formal to use anything but her first name.
In Dianaworld, Edward White guides us through this strange precinct of a global cultural obsession. It’s a place of mass delusions, outsized fantasies and quixotic dreams; of druids, psychics, Hollywood stars, obsessive stalkers, radical feminists, and Middle Eastern generals. In a signature, innovative “exploded biography,” White offers both a portrait of the princess, and group portraits of those who knew her intimately; those who worked with and for her; and the many ordinary people whose connection to Diana reveals her unique and enduring legacy. White draws on a kaleidoscopic array of sources and perspectives never before used in books about Diana or the royal family—from interviews with sex workers and professional lookalikes, to the Mass Observation social research project and the Great Diary Project in Britain, and the peculiar work of outsider artists.
Diana would have approved of her posthumous title, “the People’s Princess”: the image of a royal with a pauper’s soul was exactly how she marketed herself. In Dianaworld, White explores Diana Spencer—the person and the cultural figure—by re-creating the world Diana lived in and illuminating her lasting impact on the world she left behind.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Biographer White follows up The Twelve Lives of Alfred Hitchcock with a kaleidoscopic portrait of Princess Diana (1961–1997), as viewed by the people whose lives she touched. Describing how the princess's 1991 diplomatic visit to Pakistan and romantic relationship with British Pakistani surgeon Hasnat Khan endeared her to many in the country, White suggests that some Pakistani women saw Diana's tumultuous relationship with Prince Charles as akin to their own troubled arranged marriages. Diana's outspoken advocacy on behalf of AIDS patients made her a "gay icon," White contends, arguing that her memory "has become entwined with a particular idea of gay experience, in which defiance and radical honesty are king and queen." White's central contention is that people see in Diana what they wish to see. For instance, he notes that the anti-monarchist Julie Burchill called the princess "the greatest force for republicanism since Oliver Cromwell" despite Diana, as White sees it, helping to revitalize the Windsors' flagging reputation. White takes an evenhanded perspective on his subject—positing that the princess could be "beguiling and frustrating, admirable and infuriating, weirdly clueless and astonishingly astute"—and while he's largely uninterested in discovering the "real" Diana behind the myth, his panoramic approach attests to her lasting influence across the world. This achieves the difficult task of finding a novel take on the much-discussed former royal. Photos.
