25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Politics and true love abound in Duchess: A novel of Sarah Churchill, August 20, 2006
It's always good to see a period of history that tends to get skipped over -- in this case, the period of Restoration England and the last of the Stuart kings and queens -- get a good treatment. Susan Holloway Scott's Duchess: A Novel of Sarah Churchill takes an intimate, and at times, shocking look at how a nation managed to firmly shut the door on the idea of an absolute monarch, and so, created a stable and prosperous realm.
Told through the eyes of Sarah Jennings, a young rather impoverished child of twelve, we see the rather tangled relationships between the Stuarts. Arriving to the Royal Court as a maid of honour to the Duchess of York, Sarah finds it to be a blessed relief from her shrewish, hateful mother, and a way to climb the social ladder. That goal becomes much easier when she meets the duke's younger daughter, Princess Anne, who will become Sarah's closest friend.
Anne isn't what one would think of as a traditional princess. She's rather plain and round, with squinting, watering eyes, and morbidly shy when we first see her. And with a family that either despises her, or ignores her, Anne clings to Sarah; at first this is just two lonely children finding a common friendship, but soon, Sarah discovers that Anne can be manipulated, and her intense need for love and acceptance used. While Anne eventually finds herself married to a Danish prince of incredible vapidity, Sarah finds herself in an ambitious match with an officer, John Churchill, a man who is both politically and militarily wise.
While Sarah is able to find love with both Anne and John, she also finds herself immersed in court politics, especially when King Charles dies without a legitimate heir, and his brother, James, the Duke of York, becomes King James II. Unfortunately for most of England, he's a proud, vengeful man, who is determined to bring England back to Catholicism, and doesn't mind burning, hanging and torturing his subjects to see that they do so. Eventually, Sarah and John must decide between sworn loyalty to the king, or to keep England free of Catholicism.
It's an intriguing blend of history, women's roles, personal life and a grand love affair between Sarah and John. Scott's research is firmly solid, and while some readers may find many of the incidents too fanciful, they really did happen. Anne and Sarah would write and term each other as 'Mrs. Morley' and 'Mrs. Freeman,' moving beyond the distance that royalty deemed was necessary, Sarah did spirit Anne away as the 'Glorious Revolution' started, and there were indeed rumors of a lesbian relationship between the two women.
Too, the author talks about the day to day living of aristocratic women. Besides providing social entertainment and style, there was the burden of bearing children; while birth control was nearly nonexistant, it was also quite likely that a mother and her child could die during the process, or a beloved infant die within days or months of birth. A sorrowful note is struck with both Anne and Sarah losing several children -- Anne would manage more than eighteen pregnancies, but only one son would survive infancy, and would die at the young age of eleven.
A great deal of the book is given up to the political dealings of the time, from the fall of James II, to his elder daughter Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, becoming monarchs of Great Britain, and Anne's eventual succession as Queen. Paralleling this is John and Sarah's marriage, children, and the War of the Spanish Sucession that would embroil them both in political mire, and banishment from the court.
But it is mostly Sarah's story, as a determined young woman who manages to make a very bold mark on history. She was the ancestress of the Dukes of Marlborough, and the builder of Blenheim Palace, a grand monstrosity of a house in England that is a showpiece of Baroque architecture and style. Blenheim is still occupied by the current Dukes and among her descendants can be counted a certain Lady Diana Spencer and Sir Winston Churchill.
The novel is good, told in a first person narrative style, and as a historical adventure, does very well. The story is kept moving at a good clip, and rarely stalls out over historical or personal details. It is also as much Anne's story as it is Sarah's, and both women are well thought out, with a depth given to their motivations and personalities.
If this novel catches your interest, other books about Queen Anne and the rather sticky situation of the Stuarts can be found in Maureen Waller's Ungrateful Daughters: The Stuart Princesses who Stole their Father's Crown and The Sickly Stuarts which tries to discover why the Stuart dynasty was unable to flourish and bring healthy occupants to the throne.
In the paperback edition of this book, there is an Epilogue by the author, a reader's guide and an excerpt from the author's next book, The Royal Harlot, about Barbara Villiers and Charles II, due out in 2007.
Recommended.
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