The Duchess

by Amanda Foreman

A tale of decadence and excess, great houses and wild parties, love and sexual intrigue, this biography of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, casts an astonishing new light on the nobility of eighteenth-century England.

Fashionable, extravagant and universally adored, Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, was one of the most influential women of her day. But her flamboyant public persona hid a multitude of personal troubles: drug addiction, vast gambling debts, an unhappy menage a trois with her husband and best friend, and a doomed affair with the future prime minister. Like her descendant, Diana, Princess of Wales, Georgiana was a vulnerable woman living the life of an icon.

This utterly absorbing biography, recently made into a major film starring Keira Knightley as the Duchess of Devonshire, paints a touching portrait of a misunderstood woman.

• ISBN13: 9780007285754
• Publish Date: 4 August 2008 (first published 1 June 1999)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Inc
• Imprint: HarperPerennial
• Edition: Film tie-in edition
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 496
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[wyvernfriend]

A biography of a facinating woman, ahead of her time she is a spirited woman who refuses to bow down and be a doormat to convention, though this brings its own problems. I felt myself engaged in her struggle and wanted to know more about her as I read through the book. Definitely a character I wouldn't mind going to dinner with!
There is an illustrated edition but it lacks the very interesting preface by the author where she decries the destruction of Georgiana's papers by her family.