Customer Reviews

Tidewater Dynasty: The Lees of Stratford Hall

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Tidewater Dynasty is a fictional account of the Lee family. It is based upon historic dates and facts. The glimpses of the Lee family are not true to life. All the Lee husbands are good looking, intelligent, perfect husbands, unselfish, ... All the wives have the same traits. There is one Lee who does not comform to the Lee image. I suppose he embodies all the bad traits of the Lee family so that none of the others had any.

Living in the part of Virginia that this novel is set in and surrounded by the remains of plantations, homes and towns that are a part of the story really helps to understand just what the Lees had to survive to even exist. I cannot imagine getting on a horse or in a carriage and going from Williamsburg to the Rappahannock let alone Philadelphia. I think the authors did a very good job of bringing to light just how difficult living in Virginia was and just what type of person thrived here. They also brought up the differences the Virginians who lead an agricultural lifestyle had with the Northern states whose population was more city oriented and how that eventually lead to the Civil War. All in all I enjoyed the representation of the lives of these people but do agree that not all of them were as beautiful and handsome as depicted.

I've always been interested in the Lee family of Virginia, especially Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot, the Declaration of Indpedence signers, so I ordered this book, hoping it would give me an insight into the world the two lived in. The book did, in a way. Some of the best points were when the authors described the society of Old Virginia, the relationships between the Virginia families, and how the colonists lived. Thankfully, the authors did a good job of portraying Richard H. and Francis L., but after that, the book sort of went downhill. I definitely did not enjoy how the authors portrayed Henry 'Light Horse Harry' Lee. He came off as some whiny, simpering man, and it really annoyed me. But, other than that, this book is a great insight into the society of Old Virginia and a fair look at the Lee family, and their roll in our history