The Bachelor Duke: 6th Duke of Devonshire, 1790-1858 - Softcover

Full of devastating put-downs and acerbic opinions on British royals' foibles, neuroses, amours and intrigues, this compulsively readable biography uses a minor historical figure?William Cavendish, sixth duke of Devonshire, Whig member of Parliament and Lord Chamberlain to King William IV?to provide a panoramic window on an age. Vain, dandyish, hypochondriac, partially deaf, the "Bachelor Duke" was a ladies' man, a reckless spender, a manic horticulturist and book collector, a generous patron, an art collector who owned sculptor Antonio Canova's "Endymion" and his portrait bust of Napoleon's formidable mother, "Madame Mere." An amateur architect, the duke restored Lismore Castle in Ireland; rebuilt an entire English village, Edensor, which still stands; and transformed his Elizabethan country house, Chatsworth, into a veritable palace-museum. British biographer-diarist Lees-Milne's (Ancient as the Hills) attempt to portray Cavendish as a progressive liberal who championed middle-class electoral rights and the Irish Catholic struggle seems beside the point because, as the author concedes, the duke was an indolent politician and intended the aristocratic system to last beyond his lifetime. The book's great merit is its gossipy, inside look at a squirearchical system in decline and at Britain's geopolitical chess game, especially with Russia, ruled by the duke's intimate friend, Czar Nicholas I. Told with great verve, wit and panache, this biography includes sharp cameos of Cavendish's celebrated friends, among them Dickens, Thackeray, Florence Nightingale, actress Sarah Siddons, poet Leigh Hunt and the Russian spy, Countess Dorothea Lieven. Photos.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.