Customer Reviews

The Glitter & the Gold

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There are times when rooting through my mother's old books in the attic can lead to books that are quite a lot of fun. This is one of those.

This book follows George IV and Maria Fitzherbert, his secret Catholic wife, through their lives together, apart, and in turmoil. I'm unsure of the historical accuracy of the book -- I know there are elements that I remember vaguely from the biography of Duchess Georgiana as being fairly accurate, but some of the scandals I have no idea about in terms of what people really think happened.

This book isn't anything super-special. It's not fantastic prose, or a riveting plot. It just follows the lives of two people of note in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. But it's a nice read, unassuming, and an interesting way to be introduced to the time period.

There were a couple of weaknesses:
1. Maria would not have been convinced by Prinney's letters to her while she was on the continent. Women have known since the beginning of time that for young immature men with strong infatuations, the chase is always better than the catch. His constant letter sending would not have convinced her of his love; it probably would have made her think the fall from grace would be even longer and harder once he had her.
2.Caroline's POV on romance and sexuality seemed very much like a man's attempt at writing a woman. There was nothing blatantly wrong with it, but the whole style was just a little....off. Not how women (or women I know) generally perceive life, love, and sex.
3. The ending was strange. Maria's sudden change of heart rang false, and in my opinion her initial assessment of various situations were much more accurate.
4. There's never a sense of time. You don't know if days, or months or years have passed several times. The only grounding you get is every 75 pages or so when someone finally mentions an age, and I had to go to Wikipedia to get the basic dates. This can get very disorienting.
5. The cover is RIDICULOUS. OMG. Look at it. They look like 1980s soap stars. Go wikipedia what they actually looked like. Har har har har.

Overall, like I said, this is no Pulitzer prize winner, but it's an interesting character piece that clocks in at 432 pages, which one can get through pretty quickly and easily. (But don't try to read a chapter at a time...the chapters are VERY long)