Prince Albert Victor, aka Prince Eddy, eldest son and heir of Edward VII, is all but forgotten now. We remember him in connection with the Cleveland Street Scandal - was he one of the high-society men who made use of the telegraph rent boys of the establishment? - and with the lurid Jack the Ripper story (though the latter connection is absurd). Prince Eddy appeared to have some learning difficulties, he was considered inadequate for the responsibilities awaiting him, a disappointment to his father until quite late in his short life. Dying in 1892 of pneumonia, aged 28, on the eve of his marriage to May of Teck (who became the wife of his brother George and the grandmother of the present queen), he soon passed into history.
He went to Eton, then Cambridge, into the Navy, to India: these are the bare bones of an unremarkable, if highly privileged, life. Alan Clark has taken them and fleshed out a sensitive, moving, brave and well-written novel that gets inside the heart and mind of its subject. It's also a duel portrait - although the second subject is really only sketched in. This is Jem Stephens (first cousin to Virginia Woolf) who was appointed Eddy's tutor and companion at Cambridge. Jem was gay. It is thought that Eddy was bisexual: the two men, in this novel, fall in love. It's a deep, devoted, platonic, resilient love, Eddy's great secret. He would have liked a physical relationship with Jem; instead, he beds undergraduates at Cambridge. He loses his straight virginity to his brother's mistress - making strong attachments to several women. One, Helene, of the French royal family, he would have married if she hadn't been Catholic; and he grew to almost love May. His intimate sexual and emotional life is the subject of this book, which is why it's a novel, not an autobiography.
While Eddy's fortunes slowly rise throughout the novel, Jem's slowly fall. We meet him when he's the golden boy of Eton, champion at the Wall Game, idolised by all, including the masters. But it's only an outer shell: inwardly, he's weak and vulnerable, bullied by his father, destined for a future in law he can't stand, separated from the only man he's ever loved, and suffering from mental illness. He dies in a mental home three weeks after Eddy's death, a tragic end to a finely balanced novel of thwarted love.
I would have liked more depth, more reflection, in the telling of this story; it's a little too pared down. The opening passages read a little like a novel for children. But on the positive side I liked the way the narrative is broken into short, chronological episodes, each other with a clear purpose. The familiar characters of Queen Victoria, Bertie, Alexandra, all seemed freshly realised and real; and the settings of Eton, Cambridge, Windsor, etc are evoked with economy and poetry.
In the end, this is a novel about a deep friendship which, in another place and time, would have been a great love affair.
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