The Verneys: A True Story of Love, War, and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England (Paperback)

~ Adrian Tinniswood (Author) "TO KNOW THE VERNEY FAMILY is to understand seventeenth-century England..." (more)
Key Phrases: perfect empress, Sir Ralph, Sir Edmund, Uncle Doctor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“This is surely the way history really works, colliding into our quotidian lives and then ricocheting away again.”
—The New York Times

“[A] wonderfully engaging biography...Tinniswood has brought the Verneys to life in robustly vivid style.”
—Guardian

“A wonderful family saga...a model for how biography and social history...can be made to work magnificently together.”
—The Economist

“More real-life melodramas than a Restoration tragedy.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A compelling drama of marriage, death, madness, adventure and travel...[a] very engaging book.”
—Sunday Times (UK)

Product Description

“A lively, almost novelistic account of an aristocratic family”(The New Yorker) drawn from an unprecedented number of personal papers.

The Verneys had a country estate, a seat in Parliament, and an astonishing habit: for four centuries generations of the family saved every piece of correspondence that came into their possession. The result is the largest private collection of letters and documents in the world—an extraordinary foundation for Adrian Tinniswood’s family chronicle, one that “breathes life into the turbulent history of an entire century” (Ross King, author of Brunelleschi’s Dome).

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Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade (May 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594483094
• ISBN-13: 978-1594483097
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,190,325 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, Frustrating Biography, November 4, 2009

By	Seanmoon (New Jersey) - See all my reviews

I found The Verneys to be both and interesting and a frustrating read. Fascinating in that it gives a very detailed picture of a 17th century family, a family that experienced just about everything one could go through in that period; madness, adultery, desertions, a civil war that literally split the family, a ne'er do well grafter uncle, imprisonment for debt, the grand tour of Italy, exile, the threat of sequestration, and much, much more. As another review has pointed out, it's doubly interesting in that it's a book about a gentry family, as opposed to the nobility, who are the usual subjects of this sort of book.

But it's deeply frustrating in that given a wealth of material to draw on (some 30,000 documents, apparently), Tinniswood so rarely directly quotes the Verneys themselves. As a result, there's less authority behind what he writes. That's not to say there aren't extensive quotes and footnotes throughout--there are. The problem is most of the quotes and far too many of the footnotes refer to other sources from the period. And, worse, there are many unattributed (in the text) quotes that a careless reader might assume came from a Verney--looking at the footnotes reveals that they don't, however. More annoying still is that some of the more interesting footnoted passages actually lead to 19th-century biographies on the Verneys; I understand giving credit to an intermediate source, but, this taken with the lack of his own direct quotations of the primary source, really hurts the book's authority, in my eyes. Could he not also have cited some primary source of his own in these instances?

That may all be a quibble, and I'm sure Tinniswood did tons of original research for the book. But what is not a quibble is that his failure to quote the actual treasure trove of documents that exist damages his book in that it keeps the Verneys at a distance, which is a real shame. The lack of direct quotations basically ensured that I'd never actually get to know the Verneys through their words. He tells me many things about their characters, and recounts many episodes that do paint a rich picture of their lives, but he fails to let them speak for themselves and prove his judgments of them (which are annoying intrusions to his narration, at times) are accurate. I'd prefer to read more of their words, and make those judgments myself. This lack is what makes this a 4-star read instead of a 5-star read, for me.

Those interested in the time period might also check out Life in a Noble Household, 1641-1700 by Gladys Scott Thompson. I'd say she does more with less; she's really got mainly just the account books of the family she chronicles, but, by sticking closer to the primary sources, she's created a more interesting and convincing picture of the family she examines. You'll have to buy it used, though; it's out of print. Don't worry: Amazon seems to have plenty of copies, and it's cheap!