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Laddar... The Strangest Familyav Janice Hadlow
Top Five Books of 2015 (319) Laddar...
Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. Enjoyable narrative history of the family of George III, concentrating on his attempt to produce a different, more moral royal family. Although this path has been trodden before, the book is well research with plenty of quotes from primary sources within and around the family. Also has a largely sympathetic tone towards all those involved. The book concentrates very heavily on the daughters rather than the sons; but there is some justification for this because of the way their lives were very much lived in the family circle rather than beyond it. ( ) "What happened in America between 1775 and 1783 genuinely changed the world. It also almost destroyed George III's kingship, and left him with a sense of failure from which he never fully recovered." "The crisis also struck a blow at George's carefully constructed vision of kingship, demonstrating the limitations of its effectiveness when faced with a direct confrontation. His inability to deliver an outcome that he believed was both right and just instilled in him an anger and unhappiness as acute as anything felt by his wife. "The sense of having failed in an endeavor which was central to his conception of himself as a man and a monarch was hard enough to bear; but George's frustration was made more acute by the prolonged misery of the experience itself." My motivation for picking up the book was, mostly, to gain a better understanding and knowledge of King George III and the era of the American Revolution. But I didn't want the American point of view of things. I've got that available in spades. What I wanted was to learn more about what was happening on the British side of events. All we are ever really taught here is that George III was a tyrant and mad. This book was fascinating and engrossing from the start. I did need to keep a page marker on the family tree at first in order to refer back to it frequently but before long I had all the Georges, their wives, children and siblings sorted. I definitely gained the insight I was hoping for and then some. King George had very strong, guiding beliefs about how a royal family should live and behave. He was trying to reform the idea of kingship during his reign. His ideals and values, while sometimes resulted in good, to often imposed obligations and pressures on his family at too high a cost. His daughters, I feel, suffered the most. If anyone needs help distinguishing between the fairy tale life of a princess and the reality they need only read about King George's daughters. Though his sons did not fare much better, they at least had a bit more freedom. Reading about King George's recurring bouts of illness and madness and the effect it had on his family, especially the queen, was rather saddening at times. Janice Hadlow has the wonderful, and sometimes rare, ability to write a non fiction book of over 600 pages that never feels bogged down or boring. Great read. Learnt a lot about King George III. He is well known for his mental illness but not much else which is undeserved. He did lose America under his reign but that was also the hand of God which no man could have stopped. King George was a very godly man as was his wife which makes him unique compared to other Kings. As a student of the 18th century, I didn't really expect this book to cover new territory for me. But Hadlow combines thorough research with a clean narrative style that made this an engrossing peek into the private lives of the Georgian court. George III was an unhappy child, raised in a way that we would today consider neglectful or abusive. But, he was determined to raise his own children in a different atmosphere, one of mutual affection and respect between husband and wife and love and nurturing for their children. In many ways he succeeded, although his position as sovereign, the unsettling times of revolution and economic and class disruption of the time of his reign, and his own mental illness to some degree interfered with his ideal plan. Hadlow's writing is masterful, sorting and organizing a wide variety of sources in a way that makes the story readable and compelling. I would highly recommend this to readers new to the era and experts alike. inga recensioner | lägg till en recension
Prestigefyllda urval
"The surprising, deliciously dramatic, and ultimately heartbreaking story of King George III's radical pursuit of happiness in his private life with Queen Charlotte and their 15 children. In the U.S., Britain's George III, the protagonist of A Royal Experiment, is known as the king from whom Americans won their independence and as "the mad king," but in Janice Hadlow's groundbreaking and entertaining new biography, he is another character altogether--compelling and relatable. He was the first of Britain's three Hanoverian kings to be born in England, the first to identify as native of the nation he ruled. But this was far from the only difference between him and his predecessors. Neither of the previous Georges was faithful to his wife, nor to his mistresses. Both hated their own sons. And, overall, their children were angry, jealous, and disaffected schemers, whose palace shenanigans kick off Hadlow's juicy narrative and also made their lives unhappy ones. Pained by his childhood amid this cruel and feuding family, George came to the throne aspiring to be a new kind of king--a force for moral good. And to be that new kind of king, he had to be a new kind of man. Against his irresistibly awful family background--of brutal royal intrigue, infidelity, and betrayal--George fervently pursued a radical domestic dream: he would have a faithful marriage and raise loving, educated, and resilient children.The struggle of King George--along with his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their 15 children--to pursue a passion for family will surprise history buffs and delight a broad swath of biography readers and royal watchers. "--
"In the U.S., Britain's George III, the protagonist of A Royal Experiment, is known as the king from whom Americans won their independence and as "the mad king," but in Janice Hadlow's groundbreaking and entertaining new biography, he is another character altogether--compelling and relatable. He was the first of Britain's three Hanoverian kings to be born in England, the first to identify as native of the nation he ruled. But this was far from the only difference between him and his predecessors. Neither of the previous Georges was faithful to his wife, nor to his mistresses. Both hated their own sons. And, overall, their children were angry, jealous, and disaffected schemers, whose palace shenanigans kick off Hadlow's juicy narrative and also made their lives unhappy ones. Pained by his childhood amid this cruel and feuding family, George came to the throne aspiring to be a new kind of king--a force for moral good. And to be that new kind of king, he had to be a new kind of man. Against his irresistibly awful family background--of brutal royal intrigue, infidelity, and betrayal--George fervently pursued a radical domestic dream: he would have a faithful marriage and raise loving, educated, and resilient children. The struggle of King George--along with his wife, Queen Charlotte, and their 15 children--to pursue a passion for family will surprise history buffs and delight a broad swath of biography readers and royal watchers"-- Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
Deltog i LibraryThing FörhandsrecensenterJanice Hadlows bok A Royal Experiment: The Private Life of King George III delades ut via LibraryThing Early Reviewers. Pågående diskussionerIngen/ingaPopulära omslag
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