Hibbert delivers a superbly detailed picture of the life and times of George IV including his exorbitant spending on his homes, his clothes, and his women; his patronage of the arts; his "illegal" marriage to Catholic Mrs Fitzherbert, and lesser known facts such as his generous charity donations and his witty one-liners, including one he uttered when he met his bride-to-be (Caroline of Brunswick) for the first time: "Harris, I am not well, fetch me a brandy." George IV was the son of George III (who went insane and inspired "The Madness of King George") and was the founder of the prestigious King's College in London.
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"Christopher Hibbert's George IV is at once soundly based on research in the Royal Archives at Windsor and a rollicking good read. I found it invaluable when I was researching The Unruly Queen, my life of George IV's wife, Queen Caroline, and I recommend it to anyone interested by George IV's flamboyant and outrageous personality."--Flora Fraser
"This is one of the most satisfying biographies of an English king: it is ample, convincing and well written."--The Times Literary Supplement
About the Author
CHRISTOPHER HIBBERT, "a pearl of biographers" (New Statesman), is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the author of Disraeli (Palgrave Macmillan), The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici, The English: A Social History, and Cavaliers and Roundheads. He lives in Oxfordshire, England.
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These are the words The Times used to describe George IV in his obituary. In this 851 page biography of George (787 pages of text), Christopher Hibbert details the life of this amazing man - amazing not because of his achievements or because of his nobility but because it is hard to believe how hedonistic one human being can be. It is like having a spoiled 14-year-old with an unlimited budget or, perhaps, like Henry VIII without the power and without a mean streak. In her Foreward Amanda Foreman refers to his "pathological self-indulgence." That fits George well but in fact it is quite impossible to find words to describe him in any brief fashion. Hibbert's book succeeds in doing that with many words.
I do not think there is a poorly written page in this book. Hibbert is a gifted writer. He takes massive amounts of information from the Royal Archives, from George's correspondence, and from numerous other sources and makes a story that reads well in every paragraph. All references to the many people who came through George's life are clear. With a few exceptions the chapters are divided into 2-4 year chunks which again makes reading this long book much easier. Hibbert weaves the strands of George's life together chronologically in a way that is difficult to achieve. The book is a tour de force.
But George himself is something else. Hibbert makes a point in places to talk about George's virtues - his graciousness, a willingness to listen, his love of children and the unfortunate. But all this is completely overwhelmed by his overriding goal of satisfying his every desire. Several times some of George's contemporaries claimed that his "virtues" were either an attempt to cover up his many vices or perhaps just another manipulative technique to satisfy them. Having read the book, I would say that was probably true. Hibbert also points out that George is responsible for significant and lasting changes in the landscape of London as well as the architectural work on Windsor Palace and in changing Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace. I guess he deserves credit for that but the book makes clear that this was part of the self-indulgent pattern of increasing magnificence for his own use and status. The chapters on George's work on Carlton House make his motives clear. All such changes by monarchs are self-centered to one degree or another. Without knowing anything else about George one might think he was far-seeing to some degree. Almost certainly not. He also generously helped many artists and writers, including being an early and avid fan of Jane Austen. This was in my view his finest trait - a refining of hedonism into something worthwhile.
Page after page spells out George's multiple sexual escapades, his huge amount of drinking, his vast meals, his partying. This can become boring after a while but Hibbert keeps it interesting by detailing the other cast of characters involved - his mistresses, ministers, and party cohorts. His marriage to Queen Caroline is so strange that it would be hard to dramatize and get people to suspend disbelief. Caroline herself is a fascinating character and Hibbert does an excellent job of spelling out her characteristics which completely scandalized the English aristocracy and led to her "trial" in the House of Lords. Not known for her personal hygiene, at least early in her life, Caroline's first meeting with George sums up in a way George's life and Caroline's problems. After embracing her for the first time, George turned to Sir James Harris and said, "Harris, I am not well. Pray get me a glass of brandy."
If I have any quibble with the book, it is in the subtitle, "The Rebel Who Would Be King." A rebel as usually understood stands for some cause that has some degree of nobility in it beyond the rebel himself. George's only cause was himself. The term is more related here to "rebellious teenager." But that very minor point aside, this huge book has no slack in it. It is a wonderful biography of this eternal adolescent. It is also a chronology of a time when the king could spend truly vast sums of money on his whims while the masses of English people came increasingly under the wheel of the Industrial Revolution. You will not learn much about England's role in the world from this book. At this point the most a monarch could do was to appoint ministers. But you will get a strong idea of the social climate of pre-Victorian England and the gap between the very rich and the very poor. You will also meet one of the most unusual monarchs ever to rule the country. I highly recommend the book.
I do not think there is a poorly written page in this book. Hibbert is a gifted writer. He takes massive amounts of information from the Royal Archives, from George's correspondence, and from numerous other sources and makes a story that reads well in every paragraph. All references to the many people who came through George's life are clear. With a few exceptions the chapters are divided into 2-4 year chunks which again makes reading this long book much easier. Hibbert weaves the strands of George's life together chronologically in a way that is difficult to achieve. The book is a tour de force.
But George himself is something else. Hibbert makes a point in places to talk about George's virtues - his graciousness, a willingness to listen, his love of children and the unfortunate. But all this is completely overwhelmed by his overriding goal of satisfying his every desire. Several times some of George's contemporaries claimed that his "virtues" were either an attempt to cover up his many vices or perhaps just another manipulative technique to satisfy them. Having read the book, I would say that was probably true. Hibbert also points out that George is responsible for significant and lasting changes in the landscape of London as well as the architectural work on Windsor Palace and in changing Buckingham House into Buckingham Palace. I guess he deserves credit for that but the book makes clear that this was part of the self-indulgent pattern of increasing magnificence for his own use and status. The chapters on George's work on Carlton House make his motives clear. All such changes by monarchs are self-centered to one degree or another. Without knowing anything else about George one might think he was far-seeing to some degree. Almost certainly not. He also generously helped many artists and writers, including being an early and avid fan of Jane Austen. This was in my view his finest trait - a refining of hedonism into something worthwhile.
Page after page spells out George's multiple sexual escapades, his huge amount of drinking, his vast meals, his partying. This can become boring after a while but Hibbert keeps it interesting by detailing the other cast of characters involved - his mistresses, ministers, and party cohorts. His marriage to Queen Caroline is so strange that it would be hard to dramatize and get people to suspend disbelief. Caroline herself is a fascinating character and Hibbert does an excellent job of spelling out her characteristics which completely scandalized the English aristocracy and led to her "trial" in the House of Lords. Not known for her personal hygiene, at least early in her life, Caroline's first meeting with George sums up in a way George's life and Caroline's problems. After embracing her for the first time, George turned to Sir James Harris and said, "Harris, I am not well. Pray get me a glass of brandy."
If I have any quibble with the book, it is in the subtitle, "The Rebel Who Would Be King." A rebel as usually understood stands for some cause that has some degree of nobility in it beyond the rebel himself. George's only cause was himself. The term is more related here to "rebellious teenager." But that very minor point aside, this huge book has no slack in it. It is a wonderful biography of this eternal adolescent. It is also a chronology of a time when the king could spend truly vast sums of money on his whims while the masses of English people came increasingly under the wheel of the Industrial Revolution. You will not learn much about England's role in the world from this book. At this point the most a monarch could do was to appoint ministers. But you will get a strong idea of the social climate of pre-Victorian England and the gap between the very rich and the very poor. You will also meet one of the most unusual monarchs ever to rule the country. I highly recommend the book.
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