Curzon: Imperial Statesman [Hardcover]

David Gilmour (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0374133565 | ISBN-13: 978-0374133566 | Publication Date: June 11, 2003 | Edition: 1st

“A Superb New Biography . . . A Tragic Story, Brilliantly Told.” —Andrew Roberts, Literary Review

George Nathaniel Curzon’s controversial life in public service stretched from the high noon of his country’s empire to the traumatized years following World War I. As viceroy of India under Queen Victoria and foreign secretary under King George V, the obsessive Lord Curzon left his unmistakable mark on the era. David Gilmour’s award-winning book—with a new foreword by the author—is a brilliant assessment of Curzon’s character and achievements, offering a richly dramatic account of the infamous long vendettas, the turbulent friendships, and the passionate, risky love affairs that complicated and enriched his life.

Born into the ruling class of what was then the world’s greatest power, Curzon was a fervent believer in British imperialism who spent his life proving he was fit for the task. Often seen as arrogant and tempestuous, he was loathed as much as he was adored, his work disparaged as much as it was admired. In Gilmour’s well-rounded appraisal, Curzon emerges as a complex, tragic figure, a gifted leader who saw his imperial world overshadowed at the dawn of democracy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Gilmour-who learned much about Lord Curzon from writing a recent biography of Curzon's cousin, Rudyard Kipling-has produced an absorbing life, 200 pages longer than Kenneth Rose's stylish but misshapen Superior Person. Curzon had a distinguished career as viceroy of India, Edwardian politician and post-WWI foreign minister. Born in 1859, George Curzon was the ambitious eldest of a blue-blooded but unambitious brood of 11. His impatience, intolerance and arrogance were exacerbated by the stress of wearing a steel brace for a painful curvature of the spine. Still, he set himself a tremendous pace, from ascending perilous peaks in central Asia to climbing the risky political and social ladders. He also bedded a plethora of eager society ladies. To their dismay, in his mid-30s he married the daughter of a Chicago millionaire, then took her to India. When the unselfishly devoted Mary Leiter Curzon died 11 years later, in 1906, he had no intention of remarrying, yet at 58, he succumbed to the voluptuous widow Grace Duggan, a socialite 19 years younger. By then, Curzon was on the verge of his major achievements. As foreign minister, his legacy became the remaking of national borders in the east, most crucially enabling Turkey to emerge as a modern state. Disappointed at not succeeding as prime minister, he left office in 1924 and died a year later. Though Gilmour fails to make the association, readers will savor the striking parallels with another ambitious, libidinous politician who lived with pain yet made it to the top-an American surnamed Kennedy. 24 b&w illus., 3 maps.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In our enlightened age, to label someone as an imperialist "empire man" is usually a pejorative designation. So it is useful to be reminded that many of the men who administered the British Empire were men of immense intellect, creativity, and curiosity. In Gilmour's previous biography of the supposed arch-imperialist Kipling (The Long Recessional: The Imperial Life of Rudyard Kipling, 2002), he revealed the complexities of his subject while displaying a wonderful grasp of the spirit of the Victorian age. Here he chronicles the life of one of the true giants of the latter stages of the empire. Lord Curzon was born into a family of relatively impoverished aristocrats. He saw public service as both a duty and a means to personal advancement. As viceroy of India, he instituted vital and progressive reforms in taxation and showed a devotion to preserving India's historical monuments. Yet he remained a staunch devotee of British stewardship of the subcontinent, and his attitudes toward Indians can, charitably, be described as patronizing. Although he later served admirably as foreign secretary, his arrogance and knack for offending people probably prevented his selection as prime minister. Despite his undeniable accomplishments, Curzon died a lonely, embittered man. This is a superbly written account of a proud, talented, but rather tragic figure. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 728 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (June 11, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374133565
• ISBN-13: 978-0374133566
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An elegant and detailed biography, July 23, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Curzon (Paperback)

Lord Curzon was a major figure in British politics at the turn of the century. Immensely accomplished as well as ambitious, he served in several of the highest postions in government, including as Foreign Secretary and Viceroy of India. It is Gilmour's achievement that he manages to convey the complexities of the man, his overweening ambition, his insecurities and also, his tremendous drive to succeed. This a greatly detailed biography, but it is at the same time also very readable. It does not bog down in the minutiae of detail, and keeps a very articulately expressed story-line going. A book of immense interest to those keen on the politics and social and cultural history of that era.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Impressive Work, September 22, 2003

By 

Stephen B. Selbst (Old Greenwich, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Curzon: Imperial Statesman (Hardcover)

David Gilmour has written an excellent biography of George Curzon, who, although little known to most Americans, was an important figure in English politics and government from the 1890s until the 1920s. The virtues of Gilmour's biography far outweigh its minor faults: the book is well-written and takes a balanced and comprehensive look at its subject.

That balance is important: Curzon was by all accounts a brilliant but highly difficult man who was often haughty with subordinates and quarrelsome with his peers. Gilmour makes no excuses for Curzon's often indefensible behavior, nor does he gloss over Curzon's regrettable tendencies in this regard.

Gilmour does a very good job overall reviewing Curzon's long life in English public affairs, starting with his career in the House of Commons, moving on to his years as Viceroy in India, then to his years in the House of Lords and then in Cabinet. Nor is Curzon's private life neglected. My sole criticism is that at times Gilmour assumes a relatively high level of background knowledge of English history and politics of the era. For example, many of the references to the passage or defeat of individual bills before Parliament were simply beyond my knowledge. For my part, that level of detail could have been omitted without interrupting the narrative flow. But although those sections were inherently less interesting to me, I still give high marks overall to this work.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb biography of driven public servant, May 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Curzon (Paperback)

George Curzon was born in the Victorian era with an extremely privileged family background. This excellent biography relates the multiple rises / falls in his career - I enjoyed the book because of the insightful account of the timeless contradictions of Curzon's character; he was born to an aristocratic family, yet worked incredibly hard all his life; he inspired great loyalty amongst those who worked with him, but thoughtless offense to other senior political figures contributed to missed opportunities; hopelessly out-dated on issues such as women's rights and empire, his views on foreign policy issues were well ahead of his time. David Gilmour gives a great overview of a life which started at the time of the Great Exhibition and ended just before Britain's humiliations of the Gold Standard in the 1930s. People who enjoyed Titan (Rockefeller) may well enjoy this account of a flawed but dynamically positive man.