Review
"'A narrative as accomplished as any Ms Erickson has written. In her skilful portrait are the recognizable features both of the romantic hero of Scotland and of the bitter, disappointed exile.' Christopher Hibbert"
The second, and better, biography of the Bonnie Prince to appear in a year (cf. Susan Maclean Kybett's Bonnie Prince Charlie) - this one by the author of Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England (1986), Bloody Mary (1978), and other histories. Where the Kybett volume often got bogged down in heavy scholarly detail, Erickson fluidly chronicles the life of the Great Pretender. The author evokes the drive of the last Stuart heir to recapture his father's crown ("Charles' capacity for singleness of purpose was remarkable. Apparently, he had no vices to distract him"). Despite a ragtag assemblage of Highlanders that formed the backbone of Charles' support, by the age of 24, his military campaign through the English heartland had brought London within his grasp. But then came the massacre of Charles' forces at Culloden; Erickson follows the embittered young man as he was tormented by the memory of his lost men, yet dedicated to his own hopeless cause. With feeling, the author relates Charles' later years, as he "sank deeper into his lethargy and isolation." And what Charles lacked in vices in his single-minded younger years, he more than made up for near the end, yielding to the bottle and corpulence. A very accessible treatment of a popular - and heavily covered - life. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
Bonnie Prince Charlie is celebrated in Scotland as the Young Pretender, Charles Stuart, the hero whose claim to the British throne divided the kingdom and shook the opulent monarchies of continental Europe In this compelling and absorbing biography, Carolly Erickson brings all her masterly skills to bear in telling the story of the motley band of Highland rebels who challenged George III and embraced Bonnie Prince Charlie as their last hope. She tells the story of their crushing defeat, chronicling with bone-chilling accuracy the massacre at Culloden, where women wailed through the silent spring night after the battle, identifying corpses of their loved ones. Erickson follows Charles after the disaster, homeless but seldom friendless, as he lived out his picaresque life on the continent. Tormented by his own inner demons, the boy-hero gradually became an irascible, misogynistic old man, closeted with his memories of the windswept moors of Scotland, still clinging to the belief that he was meant to be king.
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