Book Review - Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire


I first learned of Georgiana from the movie, The Duchess. I saw the movie in the theater around the time that I started to become obsessed with England. I loved Pride and Prejudice from 2004 and this movie also starred Keira Knightley, was set in England, and was a period piece... so really it was just a perfect mix of everything I love. At the time I didn't know that the movie was based on a real person.

I've had this book for awhile and, to be quite honest, read about the first 100 pages and skimmed the rest. It is really dense. I'm pretty sure the author, Amanda Foreman, used this book as her Ph.D. dissertation, so it's very detailed and involved. It is a true biography and would be good to use as a part of a research paper or something.

The historical side of what I skimmed was interesting. It fascinates me to learn about the way of life in the past--"proper" ways to be, the culture of the place and time, attitudes about issues, etc. Of course it being set in England also interested me, as well as Georgiana being a female figure that was ahead of her time politically and culturally. I'd say if you're wanting to learn more about this historical figure to find a book that is more historical fiction rather than dense history.


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