Customer Reviews

The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters" takes you into the homes-and the bedrooms-of some of Britain's most powerful figures in the period between the two World Wars.

The Viceroy was Lord Curzon, a smart and ambitious aristocrat who married a beautiful American heiress. When she died, at the turn of the last century, she left him with a lot of money and three attractive, willful daughters.

These three daughters-Irene, Cimmie and Baba-never did that much in their own rights (they were no Mitford sisters) but they did circulate in very interesting crowds. IN addition, their wealth gave them a tremendous sense of independence and ability to pursue their interests.

Irene, the eldest, never married. Her life was filled with men, foxes, and drink (not necessarily in that order). Cimmie, the middle, married the British fascist Oswald Mosley. She was deeply devoted to him and his causes-campaigning in her furs for fascism, for socialism, for whatever cause captured him-despite his many infidelities. She, like her mother, died young while her husband was embroiled in an affair with the beautiful Diana Mitford Guinness. Her two surviving sisters took her death as an excuse to wage out all war against Diana Mitford and her family. (Mitford did eventually marry Mosley.)
Irene basically raised Cimmie's children. And Baba, the youngest, well she took her place in Cimmie's bed with Mosley despite her own marriage to the Duke of Windsor's best friend.

Much of the charm of the book lies in seeing certain historical figues-the Duke of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, Mosley-through the eyes of these sisters. These women certainly had interesting if not overly consequential lives.

I would recommend this book to Anglophiles, to lovers of social history, and to fans of the interwar period (if you liked the movie Gosford Park, you'll love this book). If you're looking for a serious examination of the time and the history, well look elsewhere. But if you want an interesting read that will give you a "feel" for the times-then "The Viceroy's Daughters" is your book.

This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in the history of interwar Britain. The three Curzon sisters, via their marriages, love affairs, and circle of friends managed to touch on just about every wild, scandalous, or history-making personage of the time, including the abdicating Prince of Wales and his wife, Churchill, and Hitler. The book is engrossing, but by the end of it, you're almost exhausted from the wild emotional swings, bed-hopping, and just outright meanness that the sisters and their circle exhibit. I closed the book feeling rather sorry for Irene, and feeling angry at Baba - who in the traditional manner of the gleefully wicked, outlived just about everybody. Reccomended.

Unlike the Mitford girls, the Curzon sisters were essentially useless creatures, though one could base a really good revolution on their cosseted existence and horrid antics. Upper classes in every land produce people like them, but the English do it particularly well. I remember at lunch one day hearing a well-known older titled lady, refer to a deceased -and very grand- noblewoman, saying, "Yes, and _________ made the Curzon sisters look like nuns!" After reading "The Viceroy's Daughters" I now know that the 1920s and '30s were much more wild than I ever imagined... and I was a teenager in the 1960's!
If you enjoy the perfectly dreadful, really meaningless, but drama-filled lives of some of society's sacred monsters, Anne de Courcy's superbly written and meticulously researched book is just the thing.

This is a sound biography on the Curzon sisters and a superior work to de Courcy's biography on Diana Mitford, Oswald Mosley's second wife. Mosley features frequently in this account of Lord Curzon's three daughters and his involvement with all three sisters is sure to raise eyebrows.

The book reads easily and it does provide a fascinating insight into the glamour filled days of 1930s London. Contrasting with the parties, lunches and extravagance is the political evolution of Mosley and his wife. Their shift from the Conservatives to Labour and finally to the British Union of Fascists highlights the problems faced by working class Britons during the depression.

Although not as well written or researched as Robert Skidelsky's biography on Mosley, this is a nice introduction to the world of the British aristocracy in the 1930s.

I loved this book. It makes no pretenses toward being other than what it is: a biography of several shallow aristocrats who played constant games of "musical beds," left the rearing of their children to nannies, fought with one another constantly, and didn't understand why they were so miserable. Rather than wasting our time with political machinations (God knows the Curzon sisters didn't; they supported various parties based on who the menfolk supported, even when the menfolk were Oswald Mosely, and then didn't understand why their Jewish friends stopped talking to them), the author describes their clothes and the tangled personal relationships and bizarre dependencies that made up their lives. Seriously, it's fantastic.

This is the sort of book that you have to read in the right sort of company so that you can shout out updates: "Okay, now she's sleeping with her brother-in-law! Wait... now it's the other one! Oooh, now the family's telling her to do it!... Okay, now her husband's following the prince of Wales around like a puppy! Now the other one's sleeping with that pianist guy!... My God, he slept with her stepmother? What is up with these people?"

A lot of sex, a lot of scandal... Basically, it's like a really long Vogue article. If that's your cup of tea, you'll love this.

Anyone who is fond of the BBC-produced period dramas that make up the typical fare on public television's "Masterpiece Theater" will find this book a delicious treat. The lives of the three Curzon sisters are played out during the period Robert Graves called "The Long Weekend," -- Great Britain between the two world wars. All the usual suspects are here -- The Prince of Wales and Mrs. Simpson, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Ramsey MacDonald, Sir Oswald Mosely, Nancy Astor, Fruity Metcalf, et. al. The Curzon sisters were intimates of Mosely and the Cliveden Set, yet we see them not as political actors but as party guests and hostesses of country house weekends where Neville Chamberlain cheats to beat out David Astor at musical chairs, or Oswald Mosely tries to juggle the convergence of multiple girlfriends at the same location simultaneously. And then there is the period itself -- The Curzon sisters were among those who sailed on the Normandie, danced the Charleston and the Black Bottom at the Kit Kat Club, ate at Quaglinos, weekended at Fort Belvedere and summered in Antibes. They lived the life the BBC costume dramas only faintly evoke for us today. And the life they lived had its share of pain and sorrow, unrequited love, early death, and alcohol abuse. Ms. De Courcy escorts us through these three lives elegantly and efficiently, never losing track of any one sister along the way. If you read the recently released book about the Mitford Sisters (as I did), you'll be struck by how much more effectively De Courcy's book transports you into the period and world of her subjects. Oddly, considering the notorious Mitford girls reputations, the Curzon sisters led much more interesting lives than the Mitfords, and quite frankly are much less annoying. One was elected to Parliament in 1928, when women politicians were a novelty. Another was at the center of the abdication crisis of 1936 and attended the wedding of the Duke of Windsor and Mrs. Simpson. And the third was a Baroness in her own right, an expert hunter and horsewoman, a philanthropist and an intimate of musicians like Artur Rubenstein and John MacCormack. Rather than the babytalking Mitford girls, the Curzon sisters taste, style, wit and intelligence should serve as the model of the age. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and hope to read Ms. De Courcy's other books as well. She is an excellent tour guide in time travel to a more elegant era.

The Curzon sisters, daughters of Lord Curzon, Viceroy of india, were famous society beauties in the 20's and 30's, swanning their ways along gilded paths of privilege, as was common among the daughters of the aristocracy, especially during this particular era which was known as "the Long Weekend"...the era between WW1 and WW2. Lord Curzon had married an American heiress who died young, leaving him with the care of their three daughters and access to their huge fortunes. The eldest Irene, never married and in her earlier years, devoted her time to fox hunting and charity works. After the death of her sister Cimmie, she took on the responsibility of raising her children. Cimmie married Tom Mosley, an ardent Fascist leader who was a fervent follower of Hitler, and shared her husbands passion for Fascism. The youngest, Baba, was a typical spoilt and supremely selfish heiress, with all the morals of a female dog on heat, even to the extent of sleeping with (among others)her brother in law. Baba was an intimate of the new King Edward 8th and Mrs. Simpson and was present at their wedding and at most of the goings on of the Cliveden set who represented the "in" crowd in London society at that time. It's a fascinating look at the social history of the 20's and 30's, warts and all, and a thoroughly enjoyable gossipy read.

Having read over and over again about the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, I was curious about who their peers were. Here is a book that presents a group of "wannabees" who clearly had the potential to do so much more with their lives but fell short. I found pity for the daughters who lost their loving mother. Living unfocused lives these sisters squandered themselves. This book deserves to be screened. Anyone interested in the lives of the British uppercrust will have a delicious treat.

I read this book because I had been totally engrossed in The Sisters (otherwise known as The Mitford Girls) by Mary Lovell, which is about the Mitford family. Seeing as the Curzons were contemporaries of the Mitfords, with one Curzon daughter, Cimmie, even having the infamous Oswald Mosley as a husband in common with Diana Mitford, I thought I'd be as caught up in this book as in the other.

Well, while the writing and research quality of The Viceroy's Daughters matches or surpasses the Mitford book (which is why I give it as much as 3 stars), the lives of the Curzon women turned me off quite a bit. The Mitford women were, with maybe one exception, all brilliant or unusual, if often misguided, and very individual. The Curzons on the other hand except for doing some general 'good works' for charities or in the case of the middle sister an unwavering loyalty to a political husband (and serial womanizer) up to her early death, really did very little of much worth. They were all immensely rich due to inheritance from a rich American mother, socially privileged because of their father, and had not a care in the world.

The oldest sister at least seemed to be a warm hearted auntie to her neglected nieces and nephews, but was otherwise a sort of sad, slightly hysterical stick. The youngest was a domineering, bossy and selfish woman who inexpicably managed to fascinate a multitude of men, who must be squirming in their graves from their simpering love letters being aired to the public after their deaths.

It really reminded me strongly of reading about people like Paris Hilton and other 'debs' or 'socialites' or whatever with no reason for being written about except that they are rich and not ugly, and wondering why people care. I guess some do. So...if you want to read about the Paris Hiltons of the early part of the 20th century, you'll enjoy this.

The lives of the Curzon sisters and their dad would make an inetresting E!True Hollywood Story special- 1 episode for Lord Curzon & another for his daughters. Anne De Courcy brings us back to the time when the aristocracy was in a state of flux and the sisters lived at that golden moment before it was rudely shaken by World War II. Of all the sisters, you have got to love Irene; her spunky determination, service record and love for children makes her a truly exceptional being and her life a model of survival.