GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE, by Amanda Foreman; Random House; 454 pages. $29.95.Amanda Foreman is a consummate historian. She knows how to let a story tell itself.
Of course her subject, "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," is a fascinating woman, who lived in fascinating times. To make the biography even more intriguing, there are obvious parallels between the lives of Georgiana Spencer (1757-1806) and her great-great-great-great niece, Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales (1961-1997).
Foreman doesn't so much as mention the similarities between the lives of these two women. She only talks about Georgiana -- about her beauty, her eating disorders, about her friendship with the Prince of Wales, about how she was married young to a powerful man who was in love with someone else on their wedding day and who continued to have affairs. As was the convention of the time, Georgiana was also allowed a discreet affair -- but only later in her marriage, after she had produced a male heir.
Georgiana also gambled. And she may have been in love with one of her husband's mistresses. But above all, and despite her flaws, Georgiana seems to have been a sweet person.
When Georgiana died, the Prince of Wales said, "the best natured and best bred woman in England is gone." Of course, the same might have been said of Diana.
The difference between the lives of royalty then and now is that in those days, royalty ran the country. Georgiana was a political strategist, a campaigner, a planner, a public relations genius. Politicians and princes sought her advice.
There were other rich savvy women, as well, says Foreman. Their stories still wait to be told.
Most historians, being men, have written of politics from the male viewpoint, Foreman says. On the other hand, the new rash of women's historians tend to focus on the daily lives of average women. Few write about powerful woman, says Foreman. "As a result, there has been a profound misunderstanding of one of the most sexually integrated periods of British history."
For whatever reason, this biography does seem unique. Historians must also see something special in it, because "Georgiana" just won the Whitebread Prize for Biography.