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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Must Read for Biography Lovers, 11 Feb 2003
This review is from: A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby: A Biography of Jane Digby (Paperback)
This is an excellent book, but I have withheld the final star, the reasons for which I shall give.The life of Jane Digby was so varied, and so at odds with her time, sex and upbringing, that I wonder she has not been covered before more frequently. Evidently a woman who loved often but not well, you learn many interesting things as the author takes you in and out of the scrapes Jane put herself through. One interesting tidbit is the origin of the term 'cad'. This is the stuff I read biographies for! Mary Lovell had access to an immense amount of documentation during the writing of this book, including the diaries (previously thought lost) of Jane Digby herself. This lends the book a wealth of colour and detail which many biographies cannot match. The author also tries to avoid guesswork in looking at the character and motives of her subject. My only complaint, and it should not stop you buying the book, is that it is too short and definitely not detailed enough considering the source material. I have the strong suspicion that this is the publisher's fault. The most detailed part of the book is Jane's life from her late forties onwards. I felt that the earlier part of her life, including the eponymous scandal of her first divorce, should have been framed better in its period. There is a danger that Jane comes over as a very 'modern' woman, inexplicably time-warped back to the pre-victorian era. I am left with the feeling that the author has been forced to 'skimp', or that the potential readership has been assumed to be less bright than average. I found this frustrating. If you liked "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire", I am sure you will like this. But it isn't quite of the same calibre. Well worth a read.
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by Lorna Gibb
by Lesley Blanch
by Mary S. Lovell
