Charlotte and Lionel: A Rothschild Love Story [Hardcover]

Stanley Weintraub (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2003

Charlotte was young and beautiful. Lionel, almost ten years older, was rich and her cousin. Theirs was an arranged betrothal joining two branches of Europe's most powerful banking firm. It seemed an unlikely love match, and even their wedding had to survive catastrophe. Yet their marriage lasted through tragedies and triumphs. Charlotte became one of the grand chatelaines of the Victorian era; Lionel, England's leading financier, persevered through years of bigotry to become the first of his faith to be seated in Parliament. In Charlotte and Lionel, acclaimed biographer Stanley Weintraub, using full access to the Rothschild family archives, tells the story of their stunning and surprising love for each other, opening a fascinating window into a memorable age.

Together, Charlotte and Lionel de Rothschild challenged and redefined their place in Victorian society. At her celebrated salons, England's leading politicians and policy makers met and shared opinions. Disraeli regularly argued politics with adversaries; Gladstone discussed religion with Charlotte; "Tom Thumb" (with P. T. Barnum) entertained; artists and writers and aristocrats mingled. Refusing to swear a Christian oath, Lionel was elected to Parliament half a dozen times before he could take his seat. After a decade-long battle, the House of Commons changed its rules, enabling Lionel and future Jewish or non-Christian members to serve.

Lionel (and, behind the scenes, Charlotte) influenced events worldwide, helping to fund relief to a starving Ireland, aiding persecuted Jews in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, brokering the purchase of the Suez Canal, and arranging for France's postwar reparations to Germany. Yet despite the distractions of their power, glamour, and wealth, and problems of health for which money could buy no solutions, they remained intensely devoted to each other and their family. Although Charlotte lost a daughter, then her beloved husband, and had to come back herself from severe illness, she remained unbroken.

Charlotte and Lionel presents the evocative tale of one of the least known yet most touching love stories from the glamorous decades of Victorian England.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Weintraub, biographer of Queen Victoria and Benjamin Disraeli, knows the Victorian world well, and here he profiles one of its oddly (given their Jewishness and British anti-Semitism) quintessential couples. Lionel Rothschild, scion of the British branch of the famed banking family, married his beautiful German wife, Charlotte, in 1836, when she was 16 (he was a decade older). The bride was, following family custom, also Lionel's cousin and would mature into a sparkling saloniste and hostess whose dinner invitations, Weintraub notes, were preferred over those from Buckingham Palace. Weintraub, author of the bestselling Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce, intimately traces their relationship, which brought them "mixed blessings." Lionel fought to be able to take a seat in Parliament (as a Jew, he couldn't take the necessary oath "on the true faith of a Christian" until legislators amended the archaic oaths law, a process that dragged on for 11 years). Charlotte and Lionel were a fine match, she tending to charities, bearing children, hosting fabulous gatherings and nursing him through various health crises, he serving as banker to royalty in Britain and on the continent. Charlotte attracted passion not only from her husband: Benjamin Disraeli fictionalized her more than once; Endymion, Weintraub says, was an "extraordinary love letter" to her. While immortalizing her in his fiction, however, he apparently didn't act on his feelings, and there's no evidence to suggest she considered him anything other than a close family friend. Weintraub offers an enticing inside look at a storied family that played a central public role in Victorian England.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Lionel Rothschild was the son of Nathan, who founded the London branch of the family's vast banking empire. Lionel and his first cousin, Charlotte, agreed to an arranged marriage and began an unlikely, but long, partnership characterized by devotion, genuine love, and joint efforts that interacted with many of the great events and great historical figures of Victorian Britain. In addition to his great influence and power through his financial interests, Lionel achieved political power and was the first Jew to sit in Parliament. He was instrumental in gaining financial backing for the British acquisition of a dominant interest in Suez Canal shares. He aided famine relief in Ireland and worked tirelessly to improve the lot of British Jews. With her charm, beauty, and intelligence, Charlotte was both a hostess to the glittering elite and a trusted advisor to her husband. Weintraub's narrative is engrossing and often fascinating, both as a love story and as a portrait of a couple who moved effectively within Victorian society without being fully accepted by it. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (February 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743226860
• ISBN-13: 978-0743226868
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,772,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Family History, June 1, 2009

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Charlotte and Lionel: A Rothschild Love Story (Paperback)

The remarkable Rothschild family continues into its third and fourth generations in this wonderful memoir, centering on Lionel Rothschild, heir to the London branch of the family, and his wife Charlotte. They must have been remarkable individuals, gifted with a strange, almost eerie magnetism, energy, charm and determination. Despite many difficulties they continued the meteoric rise of their predecessors in finance, and in politics as well.

The book is based on exhaustive research, letters, news articles of the time, and other material to sketch out the remarkable achievements and personal sufferings of this incredible family. Some of it can be tedious--lengthy accounts of dinner parties, weddings, parliamentary debates and the like. Much of it is charming and touching. The book touches on other branches of the family along with the turbulent events in Europe (and America) during the nineteenth century.

If you're interested in learning more about this incredible family, this might be a good place to start. I recommend it highly. Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing read coming from such a masterful author, February 8, 2010

By 

M. Aoun "Bio Crazy" (Palm Beach, Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Charlotte and Lionel: A Rothschild Love Story (Paperback)

I had just finished reading the author's masterly biography on Prince Albert when I decided to embark on another of his biographical voyages, for Stanley Weintraub's biographies are absolute monuments of what true historical biographies should be.

I then asked myself, "Should I delve into the minute day to day happenings of Benjamin Disraeli next? or perhaps Queen Victoria herself?"

Having long been keenly interested in the Rothschild saga, I chose to purchase "Charlotte and Lionel" to better understand the extraordinary ascent of this banking family in the world arena.

I am sad to say that this book was extremely dull, did not offer as much information as we are accustomed to from the author, and can all in all be termed "a very light read".

It portray's the family in a constant rosy-harmonious manner, with all family members being near-perfect angels (give or take a few boys more interested in hunting then banking and a renegade sister marrying outside the faith).

It seems to me that we never really understand who these people are, for we are painted a constant bucolic scene which never ceases.

We cant help but believe that the author is profoundly in love or admirative of this family, and will have us accept his version of the facts regardless, omitting much valued information as to what was negative and unfavorable about these people whose lives we are wishing to fully comprehend. Surely human perfection cannot exist? does not every hero have some type of foible or eccentricity? Does he/she in this book have not one vice?

The vices of the Victorian era are numerous, especially for the elite: gambling, gluttony, greed, alcohol, opium, prostitution, to name a few.

A matching antagonistic portrayal of the Rothschild members would have made this a much more complete biography, and less of a one-sided constant glorification and eulogy of a (I am sure) very applaudible and remarkable family.