Stella Tillyard

Really good nonfiction about 4 wealthy sisters who lived in the 1700-1800s. They wrote many, many letters that Tillyard combs through to paint a picture of their lives. I always love reading about how women lived in other eras so this book was pretty interesting to me. Lots of info about marriage, child-bearing and rearing, love affairs, and politics. Obviously, not a look into "everyday" life as these women were very privileged, and it doesn't go much into daily things like food, clothing, show more comforts, but I found it interesting overall. This was written in 1994 and I gather it was an earlier example of historical writing focused on women in a narrative way. show less

The 18th-century Hanover dynasty had more than its share of scandal, but I knew little about George III's sister Caroline Mathilde, the Queen of Denmark, prior to this book. While George III and each of his siblings who survived into adulthood are covered, Caroline Mathilde definitely steals the show - she was unhappily married to the Danish king in her teens, had an affair with her husband's doctor as her husband descended into madness, practically ruled Denmark with her lover for a brief show more period before a coup forced her to flee, and she spent the remainder of her days plotting a comeback before dying of scarlet fever at the age of twenty-three. A truly fascinating woman and one certainly in good company with her scandalous brothers, even if she gave King George III plenty of headaches. This is certainly both fun reading and a good way to highlight a lesser-known 18th-century figure. show less

This takes the lives of a family, concentrating on the four sisters, as a biography of both a family and a time. The correspondence between the family forms the core of the research, with events being shown by way of how they affected the family and how they were recorded in their letters. As individuals, they certainly got up to quite a lot. Caroline eloped and married a man 15 years older than her, Emily had an affair and married her children's tutor, Sarah managed to get into more show more romantic tangles than you'd have thought possible, but did eventually marry someone she loved, Louisa was, in that regard, the odd one out, being married but the once and with the family's approval.
The many children of the sisters are also discussed, with the political careers and involvement in the Irish uprising being two notable events that they were involved in on various sides.
At one level, the correspondence is about the little things in life, the day to day of being a sister, wife and mother; at another level, it's a fascinating window onto events where they are close to the main players. The mixture of the two makes them seem very real, and the sentiment can be read as being very modern (apart from the language used).
It gets a tad confusing when there are multiple people with the same first name, even within one family, but the author makes an effort to explain who is who as it moves along. At times there seemed to be quite long gaps in the narrative, so we skip from the Irish uprising to the early 1800s with the turn of a page, but that would be a minor quibble. If you're at all interested in social history, this is a very good read. show less

I remember seeing the Aristocrats movie on Masterpiece Theater, and I really enjoyed it. However, I'm one of these people who say that if you liked the movie, you ought to check out the book - and that is absolutely true here. This book spans almost an entire century of history through the lives of four sisters who in their own ways played significant roles in English (and UK) society.