Customer Reviews

Melbourne (Power & Personality Series.)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I loved this book. Of the many books on the period which I have read, this is probably my favorite. Melbourne is a fascinating character, and the author gives a masterful account of his life. For a period which can be dry if not properly set forth, I found this book to be a real page turner. Lord Cecil gives a thoroughly interesting account of Melbourne's early life, and in particular his stormy relationship with his wife Lady Caroline. She emerges, as is well documented, as bordering upon lunacy. Her antics are well documented and amusing, although I couldn't help feel a sense of frustration that Melbourne was entirely too tolerant of her behaviour. While Melbourne appears to be somewhat wishy-washy, his amiable nature is precisely the key ingedient for his rise to Prime Minister: everyone liked him. Lord Cecil's insight into the evolution of Melbourne's character is fascinating, and reveals something of a tragic figure. Indeed, the later part of Melbourne's life, is sad. Much of the later part of the work is devoted to Melbourne's close relationship with the young Queen Victoria, and upon her marriage, Melbourne's life become tragically empty. The end of the book gives an account of the loneliness of Melbourne's later years, and it reveals Melbourne as more susceptible to bouts of melancholy. But that is the truth of the matter, and it does not detract from the enjoyment of Lord Cecil's work. Finally, it is interesting to note that this book was cited by President John F. Kennedy as his favorite book. Some have attributed this to the accounts of the behavior of the ruling aristocracy in Britain during the whig era, wherein they ruled during the week and ran to the country for parties and relations. I found these desciptions of the book by some of JFK's contemporaries to be inaccurate. While such events are described generally, as they should be to properly account for the period, the focus of Lord Cecil's work is upon the character and evolution of Melbourne himself. This results i! n a comprehensive and altogether enjoyable account of the period. I highly recommend this book.

I am not writing this review because I have read this book. I am
writing it because this book is so hard to find. If this book was so important to John F. Kennedy, why is it not available so those interested in the late President can read it to? Should this book not be reissued for other generations to read? It is just a thought from someone who wants to know more about JFK.

Listed as number 100 in Modern Library's list of best non-fiction books, this volume consists of Young Melbourne written in 1939 and Lord M published in 1954. It is political biography that manages to let the reader get fully involved with the person before he becomes a public figure. Lord Melbourne is just as interesting as romantic hero, whose wife flirts with both Lord Byron and bouts of madness, as he is as leader of the British Empire. Through the pages of Young Melbourne, it is difficult to imagine his almost accidental rise to power. Melbourne's final transitions to mentor of young Queen Victoria and forgotten political relic are covered with both sympathy to the character and enough detachment to maintain authorial objectivity.

With an elegant style, Lord David reveals Melbournes "starved heart" and his curious character. In a day of absurdly packaged public figures, Melbourne is striking in his enduring individuality and idiosyncrasy.

I would give a 4 plus rating for lovers of pre-Victorian British history or political biography and a 3 for the general reader.

Here is that rare thing, a beautiful book, gracefully written and displaying genuine scholarship, Lord David Cecil's biography of William Lamb, Lord Melbourne.

Melbourne was prime minister to the eighteen-year old Queen Victoria when she assumed the monarch's role and had first to deal with the complex and perplexing demands of being head of state. It was a time when the monarchy no longer ruled but retained considerable importance in British society and political affairs. He became Victoria's intimate advisor and friend, a role perhaps unlike that of any other prime minister in British history.

Cecil's style perfectly suits his subject - graceful, learned, thoughtful - a rare harmony in biography. The author admires his subject, although well aware of Melbourne's limitations, and I tend to favour biographers who are not hostile.

Melbourne was a controversial figure for a number of reasons, but especially owing to his role in the early years of Victoria's reign. One can imagine the feelings of the opposition party over his special relationship with the Queen, and we read a fair amount about it here. Victoria had an unpleasant childhood with an intense and overwhelming mother, who worked to shape her daughter to her own purposes, and little contact with her father. Melbourne provided an advisor of matchless charm and understanding and sophistication, filling a place in her young life as something of a father figure, intimate friend, and truly expert political and protocol advisor.

Victoria filled an important place in Melbourne's life too, for Melbourne was a man who loved the society of women. While as a young man he had many love affairs - behaviour typical of his Whig aristocracy class in the late 18th century and early 19th, a period called the Regency era and marking the transition from Georgian England to Victorian - he was not a Les Liaisons dangereuses type of character but a man who was perfectly capable of having happy and affectionate relationship with women. Indeed, he absolutely needed such relationships. When his government fell and he lost the Prime Minister's access to Victoria, there was a haunting emptiness to his last years.

This is not a definitive biography, and it was certainly not intended to be one, but it tells us the main stories of Melbourne's life, both personal and political. It is perhaps more than anything else a study in human character. Melbourne was an interesting man, highly polished and intelligent, and one of the last of the Regency era's privileged Whig statesmen. To a considerable degree, he was already outdated by the time he was given great political power, although deep understanding of human nature is never outdated. There are wonderful glimpses here too of Queen Victoria as an uncertain 18-year old thrown into the role of official head of the world's great empire.

Melbourne was something of a reluctant politician, being most comfortable with dinner parties, good company, and good books. The extent to which he was active in some reforms was not so much from his personal convictions in the matters but from his conviction that society changed and laws must accommodate the change. His greatest horror was civil unrest and the threat of a repeat of the French Revolution, and he believed in not creating any tensions or popular hopes which could not be fulfilled. Ironically, he lived through a time of tremendous unrest in England, the unrest that pushed a long series of reforms, from parliamentary representation to Catholic emancipation in Ireland and to the repeal of the Corn Laws, the last having been the very foundation of the Whig class's privileged place in society.

Melbourne's underlying strength of character is displayed in his relationship with his wife, a beautiful, frail woman who appears to have suffered from late-onset schizophrenia. Despite the many embarrassments she caused him, including a tempestuous and very public love affair with Lord Byron, he stood by her until the end. And just so with any friend or intimate companion, including the Queen, he stood by them, often taking blame for matters of which he was not the cause, rather than betray friendship.

Recommended for all students of British history, students of human psychology, those who love good biography, and those who simply love books.

Here is that rare thing, a beautiful book, gracefully written and displaying genuine scholarship, Lord David Cecil's biography of William Lamb, Lord Melbourne.

Melbourne was prime minister to the eighteen-year old Queen Victoria when she assumed the monarch's role and had first to deal with the complex and perplexing demands of being head of state. It was a time when the monarchy no longer ruled but retained considerable importance in British society and political affairs. He became Victoria's intimate advisor and friend, a role perhaps unlike that of any other prime minister in British history.

Cecil's style perfectly suits his subject - graceful, learned, thoughtful - a rare harmony in biography. The author admires his subject, although well aware of Melbourne's limitations, and I tend to favour biographers who are not hostile.

Melbourne was a controversial figure for a number of reasons, but especially owing to his role in the early years of Victoria's reign. One can imagine the feelings of the opposition party over his special relationship with the Queen, and we read a fair amount about it here. Victoria had an unpleasant childhood with an intense and overwhelming mother, who worked to shape her daughter to her own purposes, and little contact with her father. Melbourne provided an advisor of matchless charm and understanding and sophistication, filling a place in her young life as something of a father figure, intimate friend, and truly expert political and protocol advisor.

Victoria filled an important place in Melbourne's life too, for Melbourne was a man who loved the society of women. While as a young man he had many love affairs - behaviour typical of his Whig aristocracy class in the late 18th century and early 19th, a period called the Regency era and marking the transition from Georgian England to Victorian - he was not a Les Liaisons dangereuses type of character but a man who was perfectly capable of having happy and affectionate relationship with women. Indeed, he absolutely needed such relationships. When his government fell and he lost the Prime Minister's access to Victoria, there was a haunting emptiness to his last years.

This is not a definitive biography, and it was certainly not intended to be one, but it tells us the main stories of Melbourne's life, both personal and political. It is perhaps more than anything else a study in human character. Melbourne was an interesting man, highly polished and intelligent, and one of the last of the Regency era's privileged Whig statesmen. To a considerable degree, he was already outdated by the time he was given great political power, although deep understanding of human nature is never outdated. There are wonderful glimpses here too of Queen Victoria as an uncertain 18-year old thrown into the role of official head of the world's great empire.

Melbourne was something of a reluctant politician, being most comfortable with dinner parties, good company, and good books. The extent to which he was active in some reforms was not so much from his personal convictions in the matters but from his conviction that society changed and laws must accommodate the change. His greatest horror was civil unrest and the threat of a repeat of the French Revolution, and he believed in not creating any tensions or popular hopes which could not be fulfilled. Ironically, he lived through a time of tremendous unrest in England, the unrest that pushed a long series of reforms, from parliamentary representation to Catholic emancipation in Ireland and to the repeal of the Corn Laws, the last having been the very foundation of the Whig class's privileged place in society.

Melbourne's underlying strength of character is displayed in his relationship with his wife, a beautiful, frail woman who appears to have suffered from late-onset schizophrenia. Despite the many embarrassments she caused him, including a tempestuous and very public love affair with Lord Byron, he stood by her until the end. And just so with any friend or intimate companion, including the Queen, he stood by them, often taking blame for matters of which he was not the cause, rather than betray friendship.

Recommended for all students of British history, students of human psychology, those who love good biography, and those who simply love books.

Here is that rare thing, a beautiful book, gracefully written and displaying genuine scholarship, Lord David Cecil's biography of William Lamb, Lord Melbourne.

Melbourne was prime minister to the eighteen-year old Queen Victoria when she assumed the monarch's role and had first to deal with the complex and perplexing demands of being head of state. It was a time when the monarchy no longer ruled but retained considerable importance in British society and political affairs. He became Victoria's intimate advisor and friend, a role perhaps unlike that of any other prime minister in British history.

Cecil's style perfectly suits his subject - graceful, learned, thoughtful - a rare harmony in biography. The author admires his subject, although well aware of Melbourne's limitations, and I tend to favour biographers who are not hostile.

Melbourne was a controversial figure for a number of reasons, but especially owing to his role in the early years of Victoria's reign. One can imagine the feelings of the opposition party over his special relationship with the Queen, and we read a fair amount about it here. Victoria had an unpleasant childhood with an intense and overwhelming mother, who worked to shape her daughter to her own purposes, and little contact with her father. Melbourne provided an advisor of matchless charm and understanding and sophistication, filling a place in her young life as something of a father figure, intimate friend, and truly expert political and protocol advisor.

Victoria filled an important place in Melbourne's life too, for Melbourne was a man who loved the society of women. While as a young man he had many love affairs - behaviour typical of his Whig aristocracy class in the late 18th century and early 19th, a period called the Regency era and marking the transition from Georgian England to Victorian - he was not a Les Liaisons dangereuses type of character but a man who was perfectly capable of having happy and affectionate relationship with women. Indeed, he absolutely needed such relationships. When his government fell and he lost the Prime Minister's access to Victoria, there was a haunting emptiness to his last years.

This is not a definitive biography, and it was certainly not intended to be one, but it tells us the main stories of Melbourne's life, both personal and political. It is perhaps more than anything else a study in human character. Melbourne was an interesting man, highly polished and intelligent, and one of the last of the Regency era's privileged Whig statesmen. To a considerable degree, he was already outdated by the time he was given great political power, although deep understanding of human nature is never outdated. There are wonderful glimpses here too of Queen Victoria as an uncertain 18-year old thrown into the role of official head of the world's great empire.

Melbourne was something of a reluctant politician, being most comfortable with dinner parties, good company, and good books. The extent to which he was active in some reforms was not so much from his personal convictions in the matters but from his conviction that society changed and laws must accommodate the change. His greatest horror was civil unrest and the threat of a repeat of the French Revolution, and he believed in not creating any tensions or popular hopes which could not be fulfilled. Ironically, he lived through a time of tremendous unrest in England, the unrest that pushed a long series of reforms, from parliamentary representation to Catholic emancipation in Ireland and to the repeal of the Corn Laws, the last having been the very foundation of the Whig class's privileged place in society.

Melbourne's underlying strength of character is displayed in his relationship with his wife, a beautiful, frail woman who appears to have suffered from late-onset schizophrenia. Despite the many embarrassments she caused him, including a tempestuous and very public love affair with Lord Byron, he stood by her until the end. And just so with any friend or intimate companion, including the Queen, he stood by them, often taking blame for matters of which he was not the cause, rather than betray friendship.

Recommended for all students of British history, students of human psychology, those who love good biography, and those who simply love books.