Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

New York: Random House Inc, 1998. Sixth Printing . Trade Paperback. Very Good. 6" x 9. 453 Pages Indexed. Tight, bright book with no marks or stamps. Flawless interior text. Contents in Four Parts: Debutante, Politics, Esile, and Georgian Redux. Plus Epilogue Notes and Bibliography. Eight pages of color illustrated photographs primarily of portraits. Black and white illustrations throughout. From the Praise on the back cover: Stunning historical research that yields a vivid portrait of a shrewd, seductive ancestor of Princess Diana's in an age before democracy or contraception. The Daily Telegraph wrote -- this is an accomplished biography diligently researched and entertainingly presented. Georgiana (1757-1806) was thrust into public life at age 16, unprepared for the pressures that quickly followed, and unsupported in a cold and loveless marriage. Though most of her contemporaries adored her because she seemed so natural and vibrant, only a few knew how tormented she was by self-doubt and loneliness. She was not content to lead the fashionable set but instead became an adept political campaigner and negotiator, respected by the Whigs and feared by her adversaries. She was the firset woman to connduct a modern electoral campaign, going out into the streets to persuade ordinary people to vote for the Whigs. She was a patron of the arts, a novelist and writer, an amateur scientist and a musician. She was continually frusttrated by 18th century resrictions imposed on women. She was also a woman who needed to be loved, but the two peopl;e whom she loved most were incapabfle of reciprocating her feelings. Her unhappiness was answered with destrictive addiction to gambling, her early eating disorders and her deliberate couring of risk.