Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire (Modern Library Paperbacks)

if some one told me what really happen 18th century upper crust i would not believe them.money,sex,adultery,hidden preganacy,lesbianism,royality,gambling and drug addiction.fashion theather social scandals,politics,betrayal, blackmail and war.it's a soap opera that really happen.even a evil bestfriend who bears two childern by georgina husband is through in.this book is addictive.i didn't put it down till last page.

I was wanting more of a historical novel but this book reads more like a text book. Almost every page has notes at the bottom of the page, this makes for very "choppy" reading. Interesting subject but not a cozy read. I had to make myself finish the book.

I am currently obsessed with Jane Austen, came across a glowing review of "Georgiana: Duchess..." in the New Yorker, and couldn't resist reading this story of Regency England. Unlike Austen's heroines, the Duchess has a very dark side - she's a gambler, adulteress, liar, drug addict...I found myself wanting her to be happy (and to win against the evil Bess) in spite of (or because of?) these qualities. In the end, her charisma, beauty, fashion, gentleness, vulnerability, wit, privilege, and political engagement endear her.

I loved the book, the story, the characters, the history, and the politics. Unlike some other reviewers, I found Foreman's writing incredibly engaging and easy to read.

Foreman writes a good biography firmly grounded in academic research but lucid and readable for the nonacademic reader. She suffers slightly from a bias towards her subject - which she admits herself in her introduction - but overall a solid work. I'll look forward to more by this author.

I started "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" because of the movie with glamorous Keira Knightly in dazzling gowns and tall powdered headdresses. Naturally, I expected the book to be a historical costume drama. It is not and I'm quite disappointed.

Amanda Foreman's style is insufferably dry and boring. The book is supposed to be about a "dazzling, passionate and astonishing" Duchess, but it turns to be a story of a bunch of rich, spoiled, idle and promiscuous women. They gamble away fortunes and still manage to entertain hundreds of guests at suppers and balls and remain fashion models. They give birth to children by different men, including their friends' husbands and still manage to be respectable wives. They abandon their own children and still are considered to be tender and loving mothers. They play in political games mostly by means of socializing, spending money and showing off, and are called patriots. I could not sympathize with the Duchess, mostly because I couldn't see her as a real person. Her character is very much like the real Georgiana's novel "The Sylph", which I tried to read - too many words and very little sense. Ms.Foreman's Duchess is an unhappy, constantly whining and lying person. It looks like she spends a lifetime writing long letters full of false passion and yet remains cold, detached and, worse of all, outstandingly boring. Her relationship with Bess Foster is unclear, her feelings towards the Duke are perplexing, and even her love affairs lack any hint of romance or emotion...

But most of all, I ask myself why this biography was published in the first place? What was the reason for this long-dead woman to be brought up to light again after two hundred years of oblivion? Was it because of her grand-grand-grand-niece, who even 10 years after her death still sells anything with her name on it? Georgiana's story begins with too many "coincidental" similarities to Princess Diana's life: her being Lady Spencer before marriage, being tall and stylish and glamorous, her common touch, her being celebrity and constant subject of tabloids, even her illusions about marriage and her husband having turned out to be cold and detached, not to mention his lifelong lover and their being "three in the marriage". As it eventually turns out, the story of Georgiana Spencer has nothing in common with that of Diana Spencer, except for the name, which is apparently a high-quality brand that can sell just anything, even an oversized and very boring biography.