Princesses
The Six Daughters of George III
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- USD 17.99
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- USD 17.99
Descripción editorial
'Remarkably intimate... Full and revealing... Princesses opens an invaluable new window into the often troubled private world of these royal women' LA Times
'Riveting and wonderfully detailed....Thanks to Flora Fraser's new book, George III's daughters can step out of the shadows of history and take their rightful places with the rest of the House of Hanover' Washington Times
Drawing on their extraordinary private correspondence, acclaimed biographer Flora Fraser gives voice to the daughters of 'Mad' King George III. Six handsome, accomplished, extremely well-educated women: Princess Royal, the eldest, constantly at odds with her mother; home-loving, family-minded Augusta; plump Elizabeth, a gifted amateur artist; Mary the bland beauty of the family; Sophia, emotional and prone to take refuge in illness; and Amelia, 'the most turbulent and tempestuous of all the princesses.'
In this sumptuous group portrait, Fraser takes us into the heart of the British Royal family during the tumultuous period of the American and French revolutions. Never before has the historical searchlight been turned with such sympathy and acuity on George III and his family.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
King George III of England (1760 1820) and his queen, Charlotte, had 15 children, among them six daughters, on whom Fraser (The Unruly Queen) focuses her family portrait. She depicts royals who attempted to live a rather homey life, but were torn both by the king's famous madness and by complex political and affectionate alliances within the family itself. Fraser has a great source that she uses extensively: the prolific and elegant letters of Charlotte and her daughters. Their correspondence reveals personalities and daily details that attach the reader to their lives. The letters are at times less informative than suggestive; over-reliance on them contributes a wandering quality to the narrative and too many precious tidbits that Fraser apparently couldn't bear to leave out. She also tends to set up situations that take too long to play out, the most significant being the onset of George's madness. The madness, though, is at the center of the women's lives: it not only helped weaken the monarchy further, it wrecked a happy marriage, created rifts out of family tensions and contributed to only three of George's talented daughters marrying, and then too late in life to have children, while two others triggered scandal with their affairs. It's a sad and fascinating story. 24 pages of color illus.
