false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255735079m/319300.jpg 319300 22 Georgiana Spencer was, in a sense, an 18th-century It Girl. She came from one of England's richest and most landed families (the late Princess Diana was a Spencer too) and married into another. She was beautiful, sensitive, and extravagant--drugs, drink, high-profile love affairs, and even gambling counted among her favorite leisure-time activities. Nonetheless, she quickly moved from a world dominated by social parties to one focused on political parties. The duchess was an intimate of ministers and princes, and she canvassed assiduously for the Whig cause, most famously in the Westminster election of 1784. By turns she was caricatured and fawned on by the press, and she provided the inspiration for the character of Lady Teazle in Richard Sheridan's famous play <I>The School for Scandal</I>. But her weaknesses marked the last part of her life. By 1784, for one, Georgiana owed "many, many, many thousands," and her creditors dogged her until her death. <p> Biographer Amanda Foreman describes astutely the mess that surrounded the personal relationships of the aristocratic subculture (Georgiana and the duke engaged for many years in a ménage à trois with Lady Elizabeth Fraser, who inveigled her way into the duke's bed and the duchess's heart). Foreman is, by her own admission, a little in love with her subject, which can lead to occasional lapses of perspective, but generally it adds zest to a narrative built on, rather than burdened by, scholarship, that is at once accessible and learned. An impressive debut, in every sense. <I>--David Vincent, Amazon.co.uk</I> 578160 1998 Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire (Modern Library Paperbacks) total:1432|5:218|4:541|3:476|2:155|1:42| 1432 5034 2830 403 5 5 false false Sat Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 07 11:03:31 -0800 2008 Mon Dec 01 11:15:04 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Mon Jun 11 08:46:14 -0700 2007 Mon Jun 11 08:49:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 3 2 true false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 02 14:33:21 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 11:23:38 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 1 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Apr 19 22:43:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 22:55:44 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 2 false false Tue Jan 13 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 10:05:31 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 18:03:23 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Sep 22 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 18:48:58 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 22 18:50:07 -0700 2008 After finishing "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" by Amanda Foreman, I have come to the conclusion that the flaming youth of the 1770's and 80's were just about as wild a bunch that could be. It seems that the generation of aristocrats who came of age in the decade and a half immedi...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Aug 31 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 04 19:27:42 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 01 07:50:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Jan 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jul 17 22:25:11 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 05 17:55:41 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 1 false false Mon Feb 16 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 10:45:31 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 10:47:42 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Mar 12 19:03:23 -0700 2007 Sun Sep 28 17:01:51 -0700 2008
the film paints a more sympath...more...]]> 2 2 false false Sun Sep 14 05:17:26 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 05:18:32 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Feb 14 07:18:27 -0800 2009 Sat Jun 20 15:15:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Dec 09 13:57:04 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 09 14:00:35 -0800 2008 ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 12:47:53 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 25 14:17:22 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Aug 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 04:09:16 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 04:10:37 -0700 2009 http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7244...

I would probably not have chosen this title myself as something I would enjoy, but I was pleasantly surprised. Recently passed on to me by my daughter when she was clearing her bookshelves, this is history made palatable. Originally published in...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 15:41:21 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 18 15:46:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 06:50:40 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 18 07:01:25 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jan 16 21:09:28 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 09:42:50 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Sep 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 00:44:46 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 10:46:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed May 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun May 10 09:29:13 -0700 2009 Thu May 14 07:39:11 -0700 2009
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