- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Century; illustrated edition edition (5 Jun 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0712614516
- ISBN-13: 978-0712614511
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 16.2 x 3.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 301,469 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Spectator, 5 July 2003
‘Gervat writes with sympathy and much good sense, backed up by sound scholarship, about a real-life woman in the round.’
Sunday Telegraph, 1 June 2003
‘Gervat’s research is immaculate... a grippingly good read’
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Quite informative and entertaining. Full of details about the life in the high circles in the 18th century and so many juice gossips written a wry sense of humour!
Lovely
Lovely
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a thorough biography of Elizabeth Chutleigh, detailing her long life with a lot of quotes from her own letters. The book's cover names her "beauty, wit, vitality" and "zest for life", but, throughout the book, Elizabeth doesn't really come to life. As Miss Chutleigh, she received marriage proposals from several Dukes, so she must have been a vivacious lady, but somehow Gervat has managed to make her somewhat boring.
Still, Elizabeth's life was an interesting one. For years, she was a maid of honour to George III's mother. She secretly married lustful Augustus Hervey, younger son of the Earl of Bristol, but they didn't see much of each other and grew apart. In later life, she married her great love the Duke of Kingston. After his death, she was charged with bigamy and became a social pariah among the British. Stubbornly sticking to her title of Duchess, she traveled all
Still, Elizabeth's life was an interesting one. For years, she was a maid of honour to George III's mother. She secretly married lustful Augustus Hervey, younger son of the Earl of Bristol, but they didn't see much of each other and grew apart. In later life, she married her great love the Duke of Kingston. After his death, she was charged with bigamy and became a social pariah among the British. Stubbornly sticking to her title of Duchess, she traveled all
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Simply not a very interesting story, the title of the book notwithstanding.
5 Sep 2007
Format:Hardcover
I was surprised that the editorial reviews consider this a "fascinating" and "delightful" story. I did not find it so in the least. Basically, young Miss Chudleigh impulsively elopes with Augustus Hervey and soon afterwards they part for good. Many years later she marries the Duke of Kingston without divorcing Hervey basically to avoid the scandal of divorce. The "highlight" of the book is her trial for bigamy, more than 35 years after leaving Hervey and some years after the Duke's death (the charge initiated by the Duke's disinherited nephew). Before and after her conviction, the story concentrates on her legal problems, her travels and her interest in buying up property -- I could barely slog through the second half of the book and admit to skimming some of it.
I am very interested in 18th century English history and have read all the popular history I could find, especially biographies of fashionable ladies like the Duchess of Devonshire, Mrs. Fitzherbert, Mrs. Jordan, Countess of Bessborough, Lady Caroline Lamb, among others. All were fascinating women. Elizabeth, Duchess of Kingston, bigamist or not (really, who cares?), is not nearly in the same league.
I am very interested in 18th century English history and have read all the popular history I could find, especially biographies of fashionable ladies like the Duchess of Devonshire, Mrs. Fitzherbert, Mrs. Jordan, Countess of Bessborough, Lady Caroline Lamb, among others. All were fascinating women. Elizabeth, Duchess of Kingston, bigamist or not (really, who cares?), is not nearly in the same league.
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