Too Great A Lady: The Notorious, Glorious Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton [Paperback]

Amanda Elyot (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 6, 2007

Emma Hamilton is renowned as the real-life heroine of the greatest love story in British history. Now, Amanda Elyot breathes new life into this remarkable woman, in what might have been Emma's very own words.

The impoverished daughter of an illiterate country farrier, young Emily Lyon sold coal by the roadside to help put food on the family's table. By the time she was fifteen, she had made her way from London nursemaid to vivacious courtesan, and continued a meteoric rise through society, rung by slippery rung, to become the most talked-about woman in all of Europe, mistress of many tongues, a key envoy in Britain's and Italy's war against the French, and confidante to a queen.

This novel, inspired by her remarkable life, recounts Emma's many extraordinary adventures, the earth-shattering passion she eventually found with Lord Nelson, and how they braved the censure of king and country, risking all in the name of true love.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In order to eventually take her place in history as mistress of turn-of-the-19th-century English war hero Horatio "Hornblower" Nelson, Emma Hamilton must first socially ascend "rung by slippery rung" in Leslie Carroll's bright, meticulously researched novel (her third historical written as Elyot). A roadside coal peddler as a child in North Wales, Emma arrives in London at age 12 and works as a nursery maid, brothel entertainer, medicine-show chorus girl and mistress to several titled gentlemen before marrying Sir William Hamilton, "envoy extraordinary and ambassador plenipotentiary to the Court of the Two Sicilies." As Lady Hamilton, Emma becomes a close confidante of Queen Maria Carolina of Sicily and is pivotal in cementing England and Sicily's alliance as the Napoleonic wars get underway. Friendships with Haydn, Goethe and Marie Antoinette don't prepare Emma for Nelson, with whom she ultimately embarks on a scandalous five-year affair. Elyot gives Emma a rippingly bawdy, occasionally self-aggrandizing first-person, that, while sometimes grating, rings true. The result is an energetic portrait of a unique historical figure. (Feb.)
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About the Author

Amanda Elyot is a popular author of historical fiction. She is a Cornell graduate and a professional actress.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: NAL Trade (February 6, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451220544
• ISBN-13: 978-0451220547
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,475,970 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Regency romance and rejection a la Beau Monde, May 23, 2007

By 

Kristen "historical fiction junkie" (Central Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Too Great A Lady: The Notorious, Glorious Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton (Paperback)

Emma's story is tragic and amazing. Rags to riches to rags to riches to rags... abandonment and love; love and abandonment. Military and political intrigue, social infamy and ostracism. The Beau Monde was as cruel as it was beautiful.

Emy Lyons was born a poor beauty in Wales, and at an early age learned that men were drawn to her looks and felt entitled to take what they wanted from her. Emy comes to see and value herself through the eyes of the men around her, and quickly learns how to use her looks to flirt & fornicate as a means to rise above the squalor, feed her mother, and in the process, educate herself and live a fascinating life among fascinating people.

The men of the Beau Monde have a reputation of their own - gambling, drinking, affairs, wife swapping & politicking (see recommended reads below). These men would acquire and trade Emy's company as they would their debts, completely immune to her humanity. After being impregnated and abandoned by one, picked up by another whom she loves, she is again traded off to his Uncle! She finds herself in Naples with her mother in tow, and realizes too late that she's been given away. Emma makes the best of it and comes to love Sir Hamilton, Ambassador to the Court of Two Sicilies, and lives a glamorous high life among Royalty and Nobles for several years. While the men might accept (and covet) her, the women do not. Emma's "sordid past" - similar to many of their own, sans money - is too much to forgive this young, beautiful interloper.

Emma meets Lord Nelson while happily married, and their romance grew out of friendship, respect and reliance. Emma was a strategic force in the wars between France, Italy and England, and her diplomacy skills were invaluable. She finds herself in love with the nation's hero, and he with her. Their romance is heartwrenchingly disrupted by long deployments at sea, the hypocracy of the Beau Monde, and guilt and social rules they cannot escape. Emma hides her grief and insecurity with constant vivacity and magnums of Champagne, and carries on in the hope of retiring with her lover and living quietly and happily. Lord Nelson's tragic death ruins her, killing her spirit, robbing her of a pension to maintain her lifestyle, which now includes raising their child, and forever hiding herself as the mother of Horatia. After so many years in the eye of society, she dies quite alone in France and is nearly erased from history.

For another dose of Beau Monde largess and cruelty, I recommend "The Secret Wife of King George IV" if you like it in the format of historical fiction & romance, or read "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" by Amanda Foreman for a biography of the most famous woman of the era. When one compares Emma's life to Georgiana's, it seems that family rank is all that separated them.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent portrayal of Emma., January 11, 2008

By 

Rosamond Haupt "novelwriter29" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Too Great A Lady: The Notorious, Glorious Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton (Paperback)

I found this novel to be incredibly well researched and very well written. Do not expect a happy ending. Emma's life was a very tragic one but she was a very strong, notorious woman who survived the best she could in times that were not easy for women (especially women who were not of the aristocracy) and rose to live a glorious life as wife of Lord William Hamilton and mistress to Lord Nelson.

Sadly, Emma died in poverty and alone after the deaths of her husband and Nelson. If you want to read something light read something else. If you want to read a well-written historical novel about this fascinating woman do not miss reading Too Great A Lady.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars There are better works of historical fiction, July 17, 2007

By 

Bookphile (USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Too Great A Lady: The Notorious, Glorious Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton (Paperback)

I quit halfway through. The author tries to portray her heroine as resourceful, clever, and admirable but, in the end, I simply found her opportunistic. I didn't buy that she acted out of love as her behavior smacked very strongly of self-interest, in my opinion. I don't have to like a main character to enjoy a book but I found little that was interesting or compelling in Emma's tale. If you're looking for some historical fiction that's equally juicy but much more readable, I'd suggest The Other Boleyn Girl by Philipa Gregory.