| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.25
Trade in Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1740 - 1832 for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.25, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
I tried to skim-read this book. But it was far too good and I ended up spending hours and hours totally engrossed in the lives, loves and letters of the Lennox sisters-- Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah. Author Stella Tillyard has given a second life to these 18th-century aristocrats whose extended family included some of the most significant and colourful political figures of the era. She's mixed impeccable research, a sharp eye for detail and a writing style that's both precise and lively to produce a biography of a clan, which doubles as a panoramic history of the aristocracy in the 1700s.
Each sister's defining characteristics shine through their letters, portraits and Tillyard's terrific storytelling. Caroline, the eldest, deeply pessimistic, intelligent and moral but fascinated by and attracted to "wickedness" (she eloped with the naughty-but-nice Henry Fox and was hugely happy with him). Emily: beautiful, loving, dictatorial and unbelievably fecund (22 children, 10 of whom survived into adulthood). Louisa, good, gentle, always unwilling to believe ill of anyone and who, when she died, was mourned not only by family and friends, but also by the whole of the Irish town in which she lived. And Sarah. Flighty, flirtatious Sarah, with whom the young George III fell blushingly and tongue-tiedly in love. And who, after disgracing herself and her dull, uninterested husband, with the moody younger brother of Lord Gordon (of Gordon Riots fame) finally found happiness and respectability, in her late 30s, with an understanding soldier. Unmissable. Lisa Gee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“Engrossing”
audio review Karen Robinson, The Sunday Times 9/5/99
“A dazzling achievement: an extraordinary story told by a phenomenally gifted writer. Within its gripping narrative lies a wonderfully rich reconstruction of the world of the Hanoverian elite, its virtues and vices wittily and movingly related.”
Simon Schama
“Aristocrats is my favourite kind of history: on the one hand it’s lucid and scholarly, on the other hand it reads like a novel. I hated to finish it.”
Antonia Fraser
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of my favourite historical books. The author succeeds in bringing each of the sisters to life, you really feel you know and can relate to them personally although they lived so long ago and had a way of life which many could not relate now. She has a talent for showing how figures from the past had the same concerns and fears as we have today, they may have had money and privilege, but still were helpless in the face of infant mortality and illness. Since reading this book, I have become interested in learning about other women in history but none compare to Tillyard's perfect blend of human interest, historical fact and writing style. I highly recommend it.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very well-researched account of the lives of the four eldest Lennox sisters, who between them survived for almost a century at a time of great change in both Britain and Europe generally. Stella Tillyard draws together the correspondence of the sisters, their friends and relations, to build up a picture of their lives within the context of the major events of the time. The narrative races along, with frequent reference to the many photographs and paintings which appear in the book. This assists the visualisation of the characters who appear and of the locations in which they lived. I read the book while the recent BBC adaptation was being shown and was charmed to find that the script had relied heavily not so much on the book but on the text of the letters. The characters are not perfect, or dry and dusty. They are emotional, wilful, argumentative and frequently very badly-behaved, but they are the more engaging for having their flaws examined as closely as their merits. I look forward to reading more by the same author, and more about the 18th century. Even if you've never read anything about Georgian London or Ireland, you will find much to enjoy in this book, and it may lead you to discover more about the period generally.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
An amazingly insightful book into the lives of women in the eighteenth century. Difficult to put down and always fun to read again. For about a year I have considered it my bedtime book, to read when I want something interesting and descriptive. The careful detailing that Stella Tillyard pays to every bit of evidence at her disposal leaves no questions unanswered and the amount of research at the back of the book just amazes me as to how committed she was to her research and how committed the Lennox sisters were to each other. :)
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Was this review helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Thoroughly interesting reading
I started with Aristocrats after grappling with Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire which is a lot drier than this and was delighted by it. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2000
Informative and interesting.
Buy this book as an interesting read or as an educational journal giving an insight into the lives of the aristocracy of the eighteenth century.
Published on 27 Dec 1999
An engrossing study of four influential fascinating women.
'Aristocrats' by Stella Tillyard reads more like a novel than a history book. It is hard to believe that four women, each so interesting, not only existed but belonged to the same... Read more
Published on 6 Aug 1999
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Military
- Books > Biography > Historical > Britain > Social & Urban History
- Books > Biography > Historical > Social & Urban History
- Books > Biography > Political > Britain
- Books > Biography > Women
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Ireland
- Books > History > Britain & Ireland > Queen Anne, Georgian, Victorian 1701-1901
- Books > History > Cultural History
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Women's Studies
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
