- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Profile Books; illustrated edition edition (6 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1861975104
- ISBN-13: 978-1861975102
- Product Dimensions: 21.4 x 14 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,277,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Anthony Sampson
I read Kitty and the Prince at one sitting with fascination and amazement: it told me much more about racial attitudes than any number of solemn studies.
Product Description
The story of the love affair between Kitty Jewell and Prince Lobengula. A heart-breaking tale, a real mystery, and a window into Victorian attitudes to race, the beginnings of tabloid journalism, and feminism, in the 1890s. In short, a true story that has everything. In 1899, a South African showman chartered a liner and filled it with two hundred Africans, countless wild animals and a man who claimed to be the son of the Matabele king, Lobengula. He brought all these ingredients together at Earl's Court in London, in a show called 'Savage South Africa', which combined thrilling re-enactments of the Matabele Wars of the 1890s and a 'Kaffir Kraal', where the British public could wander among Africans in their natural setting. At first all went well. Then Prince Lobengula, the star of the show, caused a scandal by marrying Kitty Jewell, a pretty, respectable Cornish girl, 'There is something inexpressibly disgusting in the idea of the mating of a white girl with a dusky savage,' declared the Evening News. Kitty and the Prince tells of their doomed romance, of the taboos it broke and of what happened to both of them in Africa, London and Salford.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When the sun never sank on the British Empire,
By Kali "bengaligirl" (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Kitty And The Prince: A Victorian Tragedy (Hardcover)
Another car boot sale find, and what a book to find! I read it from cover to cover in one night and then wished I had savoured it chapter by chapter and made it last longer but I couldn't help myself, I had to be greedy and read it all in one go.This is a book about popular 19th and early 20th century racism, muck raking journalism of the time, hypocritical Victorian/Edwardian values, and the systematic cruelty of the British Empire towards it minority ethnic charges. It is also a love story be it a doomed love story between a pretty white girl Kitty Jewell, the daughter of a well to do Cornish Mining Engineer and a Black African Prince Peter Lobengula who was part of a popular show called "Savage South Africa" touring England in 1899 onwards, who for a brief moment in time dared to defy convention but paid a bitter price. There is no happy ending to "Kitty and the Prince," and though Peter stayed in England after the break up of his relationship with Kitty who disappeared into obscurity he was destined to in die poverty stricken in Salford, a victim of TB, an illness that would kill his Irish wife and all but one of his children. He was ignored by the British establishment, and ultimately denied his birthright (there were a lot of people who said he was not the Prince he claimed to be) as well as a pension that would let him die with dignity and give his family a chance of survival in the mean streets of Salford. A love story, a historical memoir, a biography of two lives, call it what you will, "Kitty and the Prince" is a book well worth adding to your bookshelf if you get the chance.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
When the sun never sank on the British Empire,
By Kali "bengaligirl" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Kitty And The Prince: A Victorian Tragedy (Hardcover)
Another sale item for under $10, and what a book! I read it from cover to cover in one night and then wished I had savoured it chapter by chapter and made it last longer but I couldn't help myself, I had to be greedy and read it all in one go.
This is a book about popular 19th and early 20th century racism, muck raking journalism of the time, hypocritical Victorian/Edwardian values, and the systematic cruelty of the British Empire towards it minority ethnic charges. It is also a love story be it a doomed love story between a pretty white girl Kitty Jewell, the daughter of a well to do Cornish Mining Engineer and a Black African Prince Peter Lobengula who was part of a popular show called "Savage South Africa" touring England in 1899 onwards, who for a brief moment in time dared to defy convention but paid a bitter price. There is no happy ending to "Kitty and the Prince," and though Peter stayed in England after the break up of his relationship with Kitty who disappeared into obscurity he was destined to in die poverty stricken in Salford, a victim of TB, an illness that would kill his Irish wife and all but one of his children. He was ignored by the British establishment, and ultimately denied his birthright (there were a lot of people who said he was not the Prince he claimed to be) as well as a pension that would let him die with dignity and give his family a chance of survival in the mean streets of Salford. You can't read this book and not feel for Peter, however foolish some of his antics might have been, and even Kitty who in the end allowed herself to be influenced by society's disapproval of her relationship with Peter; you feel a pang of regret for a young man and woman who were never given the chance to live a normal, happy, loving life as a married couple. A love story, a historical memoir, a biography of two lives, call it what you will, "Kitty and the Prince" is a book well worth adding to your bookshelf if you get the chance. |
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