42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly, a bit overblown for a historical novel., July 2, 2008
This review is from: All For Love: The Scandalous Life and Times of Royal Mistress Mary Robinson (Mass Market Paperback)
All too often, when a novelist comes up with a character that does outrageous things, or seems to be in the prominent spots, or knowing the famous over and over again, the author gets accussed of going far too over the top and being unrealistic. But sometimes, every now and then, such a person does appear in history.
Author Amanda Elyot tells the story of a woman who grew up in near poverty and turned herself into a celebrity in late eighteenth century England. Mary Darby is the cherished child of a wealthy merchant, with a father that adores her, a mother who watches closely over her and two brothers. It's clear from the opening that Mary has everything that she needs, including a very rare education. And she is blessed with exceptional prettiness and a gift for mimicry and acting. But her love isn't enough to keep her father home. Mr. Darby is returning to his adventures in the Americas, and tells his wife bluntly that he considers their marriage over. He'll send some money, but the rest will be up to her, and he walks out of their lives.
It's a devastating blow to the little family. Their fine possessions are stripped away and sold, leaving them destitute and relocating to the City of London. Mary is able to meet several people, and her attention is ever drawn to performing on stage -- right up until the manager of the Drury Lane Theatre, Mr. Garrick, asks her to audition for him. When the audition turns out to be a success, and the manager agrees to train her up for the stage, Mary is delighted.
Not only will she have a career of her own, but she will have her own income as well. It's a lure that Mary can not resist, but her mother is less than pleased about her daughter's choice. An actress in 1770's London has a bad reputation, for if she can display herself on stage, no doubt she'll be displaying herself for gentlemen clients, and not be much more than the prostitutes in the upper stalls of the theatre. To keep her daughter out of such a terrible fate, Mrs. Darby comes up with another plan.
A young lawyer in training has become very smitten with Mary, and he's young, good looking, and has a career choice that promises a stable future. Better yet, he's the sole heir to his uncle, a wealthy landowner in Wales. Mary's not too pleased at being married off, but the lure of riches and high society is too much, and she is gradually pushed into the scheme, and finds herself Mrs. Thomas Robinson at the tender age of fifteen.
But high living comes with a price, and an expensive one. her young husband is more than happy to run up huge debts, and Mary, overwhelmed by grand living realizes a bit too late what the cost will be. Worst still, Mary finds out that her husband is the sort that strays, enjoying drink and gambling far too much to ever really be concentrating on earning a living. And his so-called friends are more interested in seducing Mary than trying to help Thomas back into any sort of sobriety. The debts pile up, and soon Mary and her husband are on the run from the bailiffs to avoid debtor's prison, and Mary is very pregnant.
Soon they are back in London, with Mary and the infant sharing Mr. Robinson's difficulties in prison. It's a grim situation, and Mary, quickly loosing any faith that her husband will ever be faithful to her, decides that she has to take things into her own hands, and once again seeks to become an actress. As she isn't responsible for her husband's debts, she can leave the prison. And very quickly she finds herself a darling of the theatre crowd. Even more unusually, she meets the Duchess of Devonshire, who admires Mary's poetry, and helps to launch her second career as a writer.
Quickly enough, Mary is able to support herself and her daughter, with the unfortunate husband at her door, taking whatever earnings that he can to spend on his gambling and women. And despite a great many offers from various gentlemen, Mary refuses to take on the role of a man's mistress. Despite everything, she is determined to remain faithful to her husband.
That is, until the Prince of Wales, heir to King George III, takes interest in her, and in his young heart, declares undying love to his 'Perdita,' the name that Mary became better known as...
It's quite a tale, going from rags to riches to love and abandonment, over and over again. For Mary longs to fall in love, but that elusive security always seems to vanish just as it's nearly in her grasp. And she keeps struggling to survive with her daughter, turning to acting and writing to support them both, despite having to cope with a crippling illness.
While a great deal of the story would seem to improbable, but the story of Mary Robinson is quite true. Many of her works survived to this day, including the memoirs that she wrote at the close of her life, and what Amanda Elyot based most of her novel on. Told in first person, it's a lively excursion through Georgian London, filled with plenty of witty talk, details of daily living and especially clothing, and quite a few insights into Mary's own plight and that of women as well.
That's the other major theme of this book, and sadly, it doesn't work quite as well. The reader is reminded continually that men of this time were perfidious louts, using their wives as not much more than breeding stock or a bank account. Even the two great loves of Mary's life are not much to admire for their actions -- the Prince of Wales (who would eventually become King George IV) treats Mary shabbily, demanding fidelity of her and that she give up the stage, but also won't cover the very expensive costs of her being his mistress, and Banastre Tarleton, a war hero from the Americas, fights, cheats, gambles and never quite declares that he actually loves Mary.
And Mary? Instead of showing both of these 'gentlemen' to the door, instead pines away, and hopes that they will finally turn and be faithful to her. It's this that ultimately ruined the book for me -- I so wanted to see her develope some kind of backbone and give these men a good kick of the backside before slamming the door. Instead -- she submits to fate, writes her novels and poetry, and even manages an early form of feminism.
I was hoping for something more, but this breezy, chatty, gossipy novel really didn't rise to the mark. That's too bad, as it could have been much more in the hands of the author. Only recommended to those very interested in either the subject of the novel, or the times that the story is set in.
An author's afterword gives some more background and details about Mary's life. There is also a reader's guide for book clubs, with a few interesting questions, but nothing really insightful either.
It's an average, historical read. Three stars overall.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lackluster novel about a luminary of the Ton, February 24, 2008
This review is from: All For Love: The Scandalous Life and Times of Royal Mistress Mary Robinson (Mass Market Paperback)
Mary Darby Robinson was nothing less than famous - first for her acting, then for her affairs, and lastly for her prolific writing. However, as a feminist and history lover with a penchant for the Ton, I found "All for Love" to be a somewhat dull novel for a book based on a life so fascinating. The author's note at the end helped to explain some of my complaints (ie: the reason for some outlandish scenes), but finding this at the end of the book was too late to alter my reading experience.
Mary's life was marked at a young age when her father abandoned her family and left her mother bereft; it was the first time of many that the men Mary loved would desert her and leave her in the lurch. She escaped her depressing reality by delving into her education, and found she was able to express her anguish through poetry and eventually dramatic roles, a pattern she would sustain through her life.
Overall, Mary's early years are explained in detail, yet they are not particularly fascinating. Her affair with the Prince seems comparatively lacking in detail, particularly since it is highlighted in the title of the book. The last third of the book seems torn between chronicling her tumultuous 15 year affair with Banastre Tarleton and highlighting her rise to literary fame. Though Ban's treatment of Mary was the impetus for her many works, neither subject is fully developed enough to be satisfying to the reader. The culmination of this book, and thus her life as it is told to the reader, comes across as rushed and lacking in depth. I wanted more romance, more character development and more overall depth than I got. Though the book is easy to read, I found it lacked the hook to draw me into Georgian high society that I had hoped for and which other novels about the same era have provided.
The Georgian age is full of larger than life characters, many who are mentioned in this book, and about whom many other good books have been written. For non-fictional insight I recommend the biography "Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire" by Amanda Foreman. A wonderful novel based on the life of Mary Robinson's rival on stage, Eliza Ferren, and which will bring the reader much closer to Sheridan and Fox is "Life Mask" by Emma Donoghue. Diane Haeger's "The Secret Wife of George IV" catches up with the Prince of Wales later in life and showcases his compulsiveness. Finally, "Vindication" by Frances Sherwood is a novel based on the life of Mary Wollenstonecraft with depth, emotion and vigor.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Fascinating Life--a Revealing Slice of the Georgian Period, March 14, 2008
This review is from: All For Love: The Scandalous Life and Times of Royal Mistress Mary Robinson (Mass Market Paperback)
Mary Robinson's life almost begs to be written about. Her father abandoned her mother and her brothers when she was young, she was married at 15 years to another faithless man and spent time in debtor's prison with him, she started writing poetry for herself and to make some income and later went on to become a successful actress meeting such stage luminaries as Garrick and Sheridan, played Perdita in Garrick's version of Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale" and the young Prince of Wales (the future George IV) was smitten with her--he became her "Florizel" and she his first Mistress, and that was all before she reached her 23rd birthday. Mary Robinson was one of the great beauties of her day, painted by Gainsborough, Romney and Reynolds. The Duchess of Devonshire was one of her earliest patrons. She grew into a literary figure, writing poetry, plays and novels. People from the military, politics, art, literature and society all have a place in her incredible life.
This novelized re-telling of Mary Robinson's life is fairly quick-paced and easy to read, accordingly. Facts seem to follow closely what has been documented, although the author says in the Afterword that she also included some events that were clearly fictionalized but by Mary Robinson herself in her memoirs. There is so much that is known about the events in Mary Robinson's life that sometimes this tale seems too superficial. I'm not sure I really got a good grasp of Mary's character, and all the many people she comes in contact with during her tumultuous life are even more briefly sketched--even her famous lovers. Mary's voice does seem to come through authentically, however, and the feel for the period and the events is good. The author is successful in relating the many details of this extraordinary life in well-paced and exciting manner.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
