- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; 1st Edition edition (8 Sep 1977)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297773585
- ISBN-13: 978-0297773580
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 14.6 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,095,220 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Those of you old enough to remember the classic 1970's tv series, The Duchess Of Duke Street, or who have watched it on DVD, will already be familiar with the early life of Rosa Lewis. That series ended just before WWI, and for good reason. Thereafter, if Masters is to be believed, it was all downhill for Rosa Lewis, or Louisa Trotter as she was called in the TV series. Masters paints a picture of an extraordinarily prickly woman lacking an identity of her own who created the persona of the Cockney Sparrow by which she lived for the last forty or so years of her life, although she was not actually a cockney. She could be outrageously sharp tongued and hurtful, and at the same time behaved like a mother to four generations of 'Bright young things' who frequented her hotel. Unlike her tv representation, she never actually had any children, and her development seems to have arrested during the Edwardian era. Those were the days of her glory and she spent the rest of her life trying to recreate them, an effort which was doomed to failure.
Masters gives a readable, interesting and animated picture of a woman of incredible energy and drive, but in its way a shockingly sad picture of a woman who spent her life trying to create an image for herself of which her 'Betters' would approve and in the process lost whatever there was of Rosa Ovenden (her birth name).
She WAS actually married off to a man she didn't love in order to crate a cover to allow Edward VII to pursue his royal affairs, although she was not herself a royal mistress, being more in the order of a discreet housekeeper. In return, she was accepted into society, but if Masters is to be believed, this was only as a kind of amusement for the great and good, being used by many before being cut loose once her usefulness had passed.
The portrait is well drawn and deeply disturbing, but if it has a fault it is that Masters states it as an established fact. Biography, by its nature, is a matter of judgement, and there is no doubt where Masters judgement comes down in this case. His judgement, however, may be mistaken, and for all anyone knows, she may have been as happy as a lark. I certainly hope so, because for all her success, hers was a deeply sad life if Masters is correct.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Book
7 Oct 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you are interested in Edwardian England, you will love "Rosa Lewis." It is very well-written and the book upon which the British series "Duchess of Duke Street" is based.
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