The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline (1996)

I can't put my finger on exactly why, but I didn't get on with this. Tells of Queen Caroline, who was both hard done by and not terribly sympathetic. I can't say I found this a great read, but that's probably the subject rather than the writing. ( )

I thought this was fantastic--I couldn't put it down. Caroline was the wife of King George IV, and her life was remarkably similar to that of Princess Diana. They both married a Prince of Wales already in love with another woman; they had disastrous marriages with adultery on both sides; they turned away from upper-class society in favor of friends and lovers outside the royal social circle; they had a knack for appealing to the people and also acting in a totally self-destructive way; and neither had a happy ending. Each of them also did things that were remarkable for their time and position. Caroline traveled to, among other places, Jerusalem and Turkey, unusual destinations for any Englishwoman and unheard of for an English princess. Caroline is not an entirely sympathetic character, but I felt very sorry for her. Fraser's portrait of Caroline is detailed and obviously well-researched, but it is also lively and interesting. ( )

2979 The Unruly Queen: The Life of Queen Caroline, by Flora Fraser (read 11 May 1997) The author is the daughter of the famed author Antonia Fraser and this book is the biography of Caroline, wife of King George IV. She was born 17 May 1768 in Brunswick and died 7 Aug 1821 at Brandenburg House, Southwark, England. Some parts of the book drug, since there is an awful lot of material and Caroline's life for quite awhile was not very interesting. But the closing chapters are very good, and tell well the amazing story of the trial--still fresh in my mind from reading on 14 July 1973 Roger Fulford's The Trial of Queen Caroline. This book turned out to be well worth reading despite its sometimes exhausting detail. ( )