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Review
'This is a riveting biography...[It] conjures up a rich, alluring period which, in its brittle decadence and love of scandal and flamboyance, often seems closer than the nineteenth century to our own times...the wit and razzle-dazzle of Drury Lane...the cat's cradle of partner swapping among the Sheridans, the Royals and Dora recalls Cosi fan tutte...It is the most haunting biography I have read this year.'
-- Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
'A brilliant book, even better, if possible, than the author's previous study of Dickens's mistress, The Invisible Woman.'
-- Antonia Fraser, Literary Review
'Compelling...beautifully constructed... exceptionally well-written and informed by a vivid sense of the past.'
-- John Gross, Sunday Telegraph
'An admirable biography...It is hard to find a fault in her performance. It is one her subject would have esteemed for its technique, brio and human warmth.'
-- Pat Rogers, Times Literary Supplement
-- Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times
'A brilliant book, even better, if possible, than the author's previous study of Dickens's mistress, The Invisible Woman.'
-- Antonia Fraser, Literary Review
'Compelling...beautifully constructed... exceptionally well-written and informed by a vivid sense of the past.'
-- John Gross, Sunday Telegraph
'An admirable biography...It is hard to find a fault in her performance. It is one her subject would have esteemed for its technique, brio and human warmth.'
-- Pat Rogers, Times Literary Supplement
Product Description
Acclaimed as the greatest comic actress of her day, Dora Jordan played a quite different role off-stage as lover to the future king, William IV, third son of George III. In fact, Dora bore no less than ten children and the couple lived happily in a villa on the Thames until William bowed to pressure and abandoned her.
Making full use of Dora's letters to William, Claire Tomalin vividly re-creates the royal, political and theatrical worlds of late eighteenth-century England. The story of how Dora moved between stage and home, of how she battled for her family and her career makes a classic tale of royal perfidy and womanly courage.
‘Intelligent, finely made and wonderfully readable. As gripping as the best fiction.’ Jan Dalley, Independent on Sunday.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
40 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Claire Tomalin is perhaps best known for The Invisible Woman, the life of Ellen Ternan whose invisibility secured the respectability of Charles Dickens. Dora Jordan, on the other hand, was the very visible mistress of the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, for some 20 years of apparently contented domesticity. During that time she managed to be a devoted mother to 10 children (plus three by previous relationships) as well as a noted comic actress at Drury Lane and elsewhere. For all that the 'invisibility factor' intruded when William got nearer to the throne with the installation as Regent of his brother George. In William's hapless pursuit of a rich (ideally royal) bride, Mrs. Jordan was conveniently ignored, dealt with only at second hand. By now rather stout and maternal for roles like Rosalind, she toured doggedly until less than a year before her untimely death.
The quality of Claire Tomalin's research is outstanding and the presentation of her subject remarkably fair-minded, even to the amiably, but disastrously, weak Clarence. The lucidity of style and organisation make this a book it is impossible to lose your way in, even with 10 Fitz-Clarences with an average of two pet names apiece - and an excellent index provides a first-class road map. There is no blazing indignation, but plenty of evidence of the unthinking selfishness of princes to go with fascinating insight into character. Among the supporting cast the playwright R.B. Sheridan, whose career partly parallelled Mrs. Jordan, stands out as an ambitious 18th century Icarus whose flight and burn-out are both sad and entertaining.
The quality of Claire Tomalin's research is outstanding and the presentation of her subject remarkably fair-minded, even to the amiably, but disastrously, weak Clarence. The lucidity of style and organisation make this a book it is impossible to lose your way in, even with 10 Fitz-Clarences with an average of two pet names apiece - and an excellent index provides a first-class road map. There is no blazing indignation, but plenty of evidence of the unthinking selfishness of princes to go with fascinating insight into character. Among the supporting cast the playwright R.B. Sheridan, whose career partly parallelled Mrs. Jordan, stands out as an ambitious 18th century Icarus whose flight and burn-out are both sad and entertaining.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this book after a friend recommended it to me, when it first came out in hardback and was unable to put it down.
Claire Tomalin's prose style is so easy and approachable that one forgets the excellence of its research and scholarship.Neither too academic(as some historical biographies tend to be) nor too gossipy, she paints a sympathetic portrait of an amazing woman who held down a successful career and brought up a large and happy family.
Dorothy Jordan's story is ultimately a tragic one and yet she comes across as a woman full of spirit, strength and boundless love for those close to her.
A fantastic treasure of a book about one of Englands forgotten heroins.
Claire Tomalin's prose style is so easy and approachable that one forgets the excellence of its research and scholarship.Neither too academic(as some historical biographies tend to be) nor too gossipy, she paints a sympathetic portrait of an amazing woman who held down a successful career and brought up a large and happy family.
Dorothy Jordan's story is ultimately a tragic one and yet she comes across as a woman full of spirit, strength and boundless love for those close to her.
A fantastic treasure of a book about one of Englands forgotten heroins.
17 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a skillful account of the life of an absolutely fascinating but largely forgotten historical figure. Dora Jordan was simulanously the most successful comic stage actress of her age, and the mother of 10 children by the future William IV. The book does her story justice, concentrating on her stage work and her ever increasing family.
Highly recommended.
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