Customer Reviews
A great disappointment - By: Martin S. Williams, 12 Aug 2008 
Although 'Georgiana' is competently written & well-researched, I am frankly amazed that it has achieved such massive success & popularity since its first publication ten years ago. As other reviewers have pointed out, it perhaps fulfills a useful purpose in putting women back in the 'front-line' of the eighteenth-century political scene but, speaking for myself, I found the exhaustive discussion of the ups-and-downs of the Whigs & Tories tedious in the extreme & an almost total turn-off. This was doubly disappointing, since the rave reviews had led me to expect so much more.
Strangely enough, the most engaging part of the book was the introduction, in which the author writes with real verve & enthusiasm of how she was first 'introduced' to the duchess & how her sympathy & interest grew to such an extent that a full-length biography seemed to be the natural & inevitable conclusion. Would that this enthusiasm had percolated through to the rest of her work which I found to be both turgid & dull. Comparisons have already been drawn to the infinitely warmer, livelier & more approachable biographies of Flora Fraser, Claire Tomalin & Stella Tillyard. Being very familar with the writing of alll these authors, & a great fan to boot, I am left to wonder why THIS work should be so celebrated, so well-regarded - and, sad to say, so completely over-hyped.
Engaging - By: rach fitz, 07 May 2008 
I have given this review 5 stars because I think the book is well researched & an engaging read. It easily moves through the early life of the duchess (who originates in the Spencer family) & her movement through 'the ton'. The author clearly highlights the role of a women in the regency type period - feminism was unheard of & yet here we have a woman influencing politics & refusing to be constrained by her gender. The only negative comment I can make (and this is not a reflection on the book at alll) is that I am not sure that I would like Georgiana very much & whilst I have sympathy for her loveless marriage, I find it hard to find empathy for a woman who lived in to such excess when many women of the era would have been grateful for a fragment of the fortune she had.
A brilliant read, but a bit over political - By: C. Taylor, 03 May 2007 
I found this book absorbing from the minute I picked it up. Amanda Foreman managed to mix the political elaments with the more social side of her life, to keep it interesting & to keep our attention. Even though I had been warned that it was heavily political, I still found it managable. However, as the book came towards the end, I felt that maybe Amanda Foreman was being pressed by her publishers to get it finished or maybe she was restricted to a limited word count. It seemed to become very rushed, brushing over elements in her life that I felt should have been covered, such as 'Little G's' wedding, both daughters' period of being debutante's & her sister Harriet's affairs, which saw her baring more illegitimate children, instead of only focusing on her political attributes. Maybe it was simply due to the fact that there are little surviving sources, but the fact that the last chapters are only appromimatly 10 pages long stays alot! Overalll, It's a good read & I do recommend it, but be prepared to read alot about 18th Century politics.
An exhaustively researched yet highly accessible book - By: , 09 Jan 2005 I found this absolutely compelling; I simply couldn't put it down. I found the politcal angle paticularly absorbing; the extra juice was just an added bonus! I also loved how Foreman points the reader to the ironies which pepper Georgina's life.It's reallly got me hooked on 18thc social & political history. I'm lucky enough to have a history degree, but this book is so accessible you don't need one; Foreman just guides through giving you alll extra info without sounding patronising. This has to be the best researched biography I've read... if only my academic reading was as fun.
a well-crafted, sympathetic and vivid portrayal - By: , 21 Dec 2001 Clearly well-researched, this biography of one of the eighteenth century's most enigmatic figures conveys vividly the tumultous world of eighteenth century politics alongside that of Georgiana's private life. A pioneer in women's involvement in politics, her role as a campaigner & society hostess placed her in the centre of the Whig party throughout its years of opposition; prominent men instinctively sought her advice. As well as highlighting G's pivotal political role, Foreman succeeds in capturing the moral ambiguity of the age in the private dilemmas her heroine faces: a hopeless addiction to gaming, her husband's mistress being her best friend, forcing to choose between her lover & her children etc. Although from an age difficult to empathise with, Foreman never the less makes G & her world instantly accessible. An Interesting & insightful read.
