A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby - Mary S. Lovell
A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby - Mary S. Lovell
Non-Fiction
Pages: 384
An amazing book about an amazing woman. Considering I had never heard of Jane Digby before I read this, and even had to Google her first to decide if I even wanted to read this book, I was absolutely fascinated by her. By the time this book ended with her death I was completely enthralled by her life and felt quite bereft to come to the end.
Jane was a woman before her time - independent, intelligent, in control of her own life, unashamed of her own sexuality. In an era where women were expected to sit quietly and look pretty, where love was not expected in marriage and women had few rights, Jane chose to follow her heart wherever it led. She comes across as a unabashed romantic, searching for that one grand passion that would fulfil her, and she finally found it (after marriages and affairs with English lords, Austrian princes, Bavarian kings and barons, Greek counts, Thessalian bandit generals) with a Bedouin sheikh in the deserts of Syria.
This is an excellent biography. Lovell presents Jane just as she is, with no moral whitewashing or condemnation, and her admiration for Jane's strength of character and determination comes across on every page. Jane seems very much a modern woman, streets ahead of her time, and it's all but impossible to fall in love with her, as indeed so many in her own lifetime seemed to do.
Non-Fiction
Pages: 384
An amazing book about an amazing woman. Considering I had never heard of Jane Digby before I read this, and even had to Google her first to decide if I even wanted to read this book, I was absolutely fascinated by her. By the time this book ended with her death I was completely enthralled by her life and felt quite bereft to come to the end.
Jane was a woman before her time - independent, intelligent, in control of her own life, unashamed of her own sexuality. In an era where women were expected to sit quietly and look pretty, where love was not expected in marriage and women had few rights, Jane chose to follow her heart wherever it led. She comes across as a unabashed romantic, searching for that one grand passion that would fulfil her, and she finally found it (after marriages and affairs with English lords, Austrian princes, Bavarian kings and barons, Greek counts, Thessalian bandit generals) with a Bedouin sheikh in the deserts of Syria.
This is an excellent biography. Lovell presents Jane just as she is, with no moral whitewashing or condemnation, and her admiration for Jane's strength of character and determination comes across on every page. Jane seems very much a modern woman, streets ahead of her time, and it's all but impossible to fall in love with her, as indeed so many in her own lifetime seemed to do.