Customer Reviews

Queen Mary 1867-1953

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am so glad to see James Pope-Hennessey's Queen Mary in print again after so many years. This is the official biography of the present Queen's grandmother, originally published in 1959 or 1960. Most official biographies are dull. Queen Mary is not. It accomplishes that which all biographies should desire: not just a bare record of the subject's life, but an evocation of the subject's world. Every home of Queen Mary is elegantly described. Her travels in Italy and elsewhere and her visits to the homes of relations in England and in Germany are exhaustively but not boringly documented. Pope-Hennessey's prose is stately, almost eighteenth century, but always lucid and often witty. My favorite sections of the book are those dealing with Queen Mary's life before her marriage, when she was a morganatic princess with few prospects. Her often difficult and embarrassing early life made her a suitable prospect for a bride for the Duke of Clarence and Avondale, second in line to the British throne. The Duke, or Eddy as he was known in the family, was a difficult young man with embarrassing habits (since this is an official biography written under the auspices of Buckingham Palace, Pope-Hennessey was necessarily circumspect about these habits. You will not find a discussion of the Cleveland Street scandal here, for instance). When Eddy died a few weeks after his engagement was announced, his fiancee (and the British Empire) was transferred to his more suitable younger brother George, Duke of York. Although the circumstances of her marriage and ascent into the highest levels of British royalty were a little unusual, Queen Mary was the epitome of royal dignity for the rest of her life as Duchess of York, Princess of Wales, Queen Consort, and finally Queen Dowager. Pope-Hennessey's coverage of the Queen's personal life is a bit limited,once again due to the limits placed on an official historian. Her relationships with her husband and children, especially the Duke of Windsor, are not dealt with in much detail, and her personal peccadillos, such as her penchant for dropping broad hints about presents she would like, are not covered at all. But there are plenty of unofficial sources if you are looking for that sort of thing about Queen Mary and her family. Pope-Hennessey is the best choice for those looking for a beautifully written description of life in a vanished world.

I've owned this biography for ten years, and I seem to go back and re-read it once a year. It's the kind of book that's so well-written, you can start reading it from any chapter and get hooked. I don't think you have to be a Royalty-fan to enjoy it. Queen Mary was a fascinating person & her life was so interesting, to say the least. It's got so much detail, and the author makes you understand the circumstances which made Queen Mary the person she was. This book was published in 1957, which was only a few years after her death and a more reticent time, so don't expect any delving into Queen Mary's unfortunate habit of "guilting" people into giving her their historical knicknacks, etc. for her vast collections. (Or about her shady dealings in the matter of acquiring Empress Marie of Russia's jewel collection from the Empress' daughters at a bargain price.) For the Royal buff, there is also a wealth of information on Queen Victoria, Edward VII, Alexandra,et al. Make this a cornerstone of your Royalty (or just good biography) collection & you won't be disappointed.

While it's not the fashion these days for biographers to betray afffection for their subjects, James Pope-Hennessy clearly held his in the highest regard. Although born into the fringes of Germano-British royalty, the one-time May of Teck was, by the end of her long life, an icon of British life (she pops up in the oddest places, from a cameo as a waving hand in Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway" to a recent BBC film in which she is portrayed by Miranda Richardson as the mother of what we would now call a "differently abled" child).

Pope-Hennessy's biography is at once a respectful portrait of the Queen and a fascinating glimpse into royal life between the Crimean and Second World Wars. It bristles with colorful supporting characters, from the spiteful Lady Geraldine Somerset (whose fly-on-the-wall perspective as a lady-in-waiting gave ample room for her spleen) to the Queen's doting aunt, the Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg Strelitz, to the exceedingly patient Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, who had the dubious honor of hosting the elderly queen during her wartime evacuation from London. Presiding over them all is the vast and benevolent Princess Mary Adelaide, the Queen's mother and a memorable figure in her own right. The author bids farewell to the Princess in a lyric passage that would seem at home in Woolf and that, as a teenager first reading the book, made me weep.

With lengthy excerpts from letters and other primary sources, unfailingly acute and frequently amusing observations of the foibles of royalty and those around them, and, in the end, a remarkably balanced view of the Queen, this book is both a model of how an authorized biography can be written and an invaluable resource for those interested not just in the life of one woman but in the times in which she lived.

I stumbled upon this book at a library discard sale, andactually decided to buy it to find out more about the Queen for whichthe ocean liner was named than for any interest in the person herself!Like the previous reviewer, I found the detail amazing, and developeda genuine affection for the Queen's mother, the Duchess of Teck, aswell as (surprisingly) Queen Victoria. Pope-Hennessey did an admirablejob of keeping all the relatives sorted out, and the exhaustivefootnotes and references kept the reader on track. Unlike the previousreviewer, however, I thought the book became slogged down in detailafter detail, often delivered in a "cutesy" style that wasless "eighteenth century" than coy preciousness. There wasalso a measure of sexism I suppose that was "normal" when hewas writing which dates the material somewhat. All in all, it tellsan engrossing story of the English monarchy at the zenith, as well asthe decline and fall of the British Empire. One thing for sure- I knowafter whom the present Queen has modeled her fashions these last 50years!

Once in awhile I can judge a book by its cover-I have now owned a copy for 11 years and I also re-read it once a year or so. Mr Pope-Hennessey does a brilliant job bringing a huge cast of charachters to life, and Queen Mary herself is a fascinating study in early 20th century womanhood. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys reading about women in the royal family. All the elements are there, in great detail-but don't expect dirt digging. But you will not be dissappointed!

After all the gleaming reviews of this book, and because of my interest in the Windsor Royal Family, I read this book with initial relish, and growing ill-ease. It is pure hagiography, the besotted official biographer writes well, and with great love of his subject, but there in no real study of the character of the woman, nor the impact on her of the abdication crisis; no sense of the Queen having the slightest character flaws, or any strong life experiences. What was her voice like: did she have a non-English accent; what about the anti-German sentiment in the country during WWI how did she deal with it? Nothing of this nature was discussed in any detail in this book. It is official court writing; and if you think that that tells you anything insightful or perceptive, then you might like this book. It was all right, but so much was left out that it could have been around 100 pages and could have told this same story. After reading it I feel I know very little about anything other than garden parties, trips to the Continent to visit a beloved aunt, and that the Queen was generally a nice but just moderately intelligent person. I am not looking for shocking details such as the euthanizing of her husband or how she treated her children, but some verisimilitude on real life issues would have been nice. This is evidence that court approved and appointed biographers don't tell very much of the story.

I have owned this book for nearly three decades and have read it several times, and each time is a joy. This book. by far, has to be one of the best "official" biographies of a monarch. When it first came out in 1959/1960 it was a bestseller on both sides of the pond as they say. Take a few hours with it and you will see why. You won't be disappointed!

James Pope-Hennessy does a brilliant job of evoking the life and times of this dignified lady. This book was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth II so therefore Mr. Pope-Hennessy had access to all the royal files as well as to the people that knew Queen Mary best. While the book is exhaustive it is by no means dull as the author is a fine writer and knows how to spin a tale. The reader will be enchanted by stories of the young princess growing up as well as inspired by her stalwart devotion as consort during some of the most tumultuous times in England's history. I defy any reader not feel the proverbial lump in their throat when near the end of her life, Queen Mary, aged and infirm, stands at attention as her son's (George VI) coffin passes the palace and utters the phrase, "There he goes," as tears roll down her cheek.

From Mary herself, to her entertaining mother The Duchess of Teck, to the tragic Prince Eddy, to King George V and finally King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Mary's circle comes to life through anecdote after anecdote. The author also has a fine feel for the eras that surrouded Queen Mary: Victorian, Edwardian, WWI and WWII and into the modern age.

Some people have referred to this book as hagiography--a word I detest. It is ironic that what was once considered a brilliant work is today thought of in such light. Actually QUEEN MARY is biography the way biography used to be and still should be. Today there is to much emphasis on the inner thoughts of the subject (if an author does that then doesn't the nook become fiction) to all the salacious details that can be unearthed. I have often wondered why people write about someone just to tear them down.

While Pope-Hennessy does a great job unravelling the life of George V's consort he doesn't resort to any kind of analysis of the woman, which would have been impossible as he did not know her. Therefore the reader is treated to a great story without all that armchair psychology that often bogs down royal biographies today. Sadly, this seems to have become the vogue in this genre in the late 1990s when all those books were written about the late Princess Diana of Wales and members of the House of Windsor.

QUEEN MARY is the chronicle of a remarkable woman and remarkable times that is told with respect and objectivity. The fact that it is still in print says alot about the book itself. If you love history and royalty, and want to read a great biography as the genre should be written, sit down and have a cup of tea with QUEEN MARY, you'll be glad you did.
----Michael J. Powazinik

Pope-Hennessy's book is a delight to read. He writes in a readable engrosing manner which makes his book hard to put down. He gives us a enthralling account of the life of this remarkably down to earth woman who is always a queen. The many love letters she received from her husband, the king, also disclose to us a woman who was indispensable to his success as a monarch. For everyone who has an even remote interest in royalty this is the book for you. A good read!

The other biography of Queen Mary that I had read years ago was Matriarch by Anne Edwards, which I had enjoyed, but the detail in this biography was absolutely amazing, particularly for Queen Mary's youth prior to her marriage. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because of the lack of detail in her later years as a widow, which was a stark contrast to the great detail earlier in the book. I would recommend this book over Matriarch any day. Pope-Hennessy was an excellent author.

This book is the worst example of revisionist historical manipulation and white-washing of British royalty I have ever read. The blatant soft-pedaling or complete ignoring of well-known facts which might embarrass the royals is an outrageous blight on biographic literature. If one is to truly believe that Queen Mary went through her eighty five years without ever once noticing any of the foibles or peccadilloes of her many relatives, the only explanation would have had to have been a lobotomy in early childhood.

For instance, an enormously overriding aspect effecting nearly all European Royalty between 1860 to modem times was the series of tragedies caused by the haemophilia passed on to so many of them from Queen Victoria. Victoria herself may not have understood the genetic science involved in this web she cast, but by the end of WW I anyone who could read would have figured it out. Yet Mary never mentions a word of it. In fact, the word "haemophilia" does not even appear in the Index! Even the death of Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, at the tender age of thirty one is only explained by the comment, "He was always sickly". Damned right be was sickly. And anyone, excepting morons, knew why!

Secondly, the fact that King George V pressured his government to rescind their invitation of sanctuary to Tsar Nicholas II and his family in 1917 was kept a state secret until after the king died. George was anxious that republican agitation at the time threatened his position because of the Tsar's unpopularity in Britain. His inability to see beyond his selfish needs and recognize the danger posed to the Romanovs tortured him for the rest of his life, exacerbating his depression and feelings of inadequacy resulting in his outbursts of rage and sorrow. Are we to believe that Mary was unaware or unwilling to recognize the pain her husband suffered?

And what about King Edward VIII's behavior after his abdication when he and the Duchess of Windsor allowed themselves to be used by the Nazi propaganda machine while hob-knobbing with Hitler, Goebbels, and Goering et al? And of his desertion of his post when the Wehrmacht threatened Paris, an act, if performed by any other officer, would have been treated as treason? Was Mary too busy rearranging the furniture and paintings at Marlborough House to notice any of this? According to Mr. Pope-Hennessy, she never mentions any of these things in her journals, OR he chose (or was instructed) not to include such comments which might otherwise taint this "rose-colored" view of the world surrounding Victoria Mary Teck.

No mention is made either of the drug addiction of her son, Prince George, Duke of Kent or his long-time troublesome friendship with the notorious Noel Coward who in the middle of WW II was hosted for over a week by Lord Louis Mountbatten at his South East Asia Command Post at Candee on the Island of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). The checkered career of Lord Louis was a mine-field that Mr. Pope-Hennessy chose not to traverse or even mention.

In short, no student of monarchical history will be able to glean even a small fragment of non-biased knowledge from this silly chronology which so heavily shows the hand of the Buckingham Palace censor. Mr. Pope-Hennessy certainly earned his CVO (Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order).

Incidentally, although generously illustrated, this book contains not a single photograph of Mary's eldest son who became King Edward VIII. One detects the influence of Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, in this deletion. It has often been said that she never forgave Edward for forcing his brother into a job that shortened his life.

"Even God cannot change the past"
ARISTOTLE, quoting Agathon

P.S.: Mr. Pope-Hennessy's writing style is exemplary and if it were not for his talent at "turning a phrase" I'd have tossed the book at the end of chapter three.

Felix Klempka
Buffalo, NY