Grab Privilege And Scandal: The Remarkable Life Of Harriet Spencer, Sister Of Georgiana Translated By Janet Gleeson Accessible As Paperback

is one of the best biographies I have read, Don't be put off by its size yes, it's a long book, but it's also an easy read, Gleeson makes you forget that Harriet is from centuries ago she really gets the reader to connect with Harriet and feel for her, Though Harriet is far from perfect, she is extremely easy to like, I highly recommend this book! The book was not as dry as most biographies tend to be, but it also wasn't quite as entertaining as a nonfiction book by Antonia Fraser.
I liked it, but I wasn't loving it and was actually avoiding the book until I decided I would give up on it and find something more interesting.
This book is an excellent description of a vibrant, exciting, but flawed woman, who was at the centre of a turbulent society, It explores the world that surrounds the characters portrayed so well in the film 'The madness of King George', In exploring the life of this intriguing woman it gives the reader a glimpse of the the animosity that existed between the king and his son, the Whigs and the Tories and the various other factions that existed within society.
Harriet, and her sister sitelinkGeorgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, played a central role in these The title says it all, This is a great book to read after Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, Harriet had an interesting and scandalous yay! life in her own right, You'll also learn what the heck a bathing machine is, When I picked out this book, I was vaguely familiar with the life of Harriet Spencer's sister, Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire, I didn't know much about Harriet at all, This book changed that. Harriet was an interesting woman in her own right, and this biography paints a sympathetic portrait of her, I don't think her life was ordinary by any stretch of the word, but it was certainly a good look into how a small portion of the world lived in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
I enjoyed reading about the life of Harriet Spencer, I had only read about her in relation to her more famous sister, She certainly led quite a life! The author did a good job of detailing and explaining her life, I appreciated her clarifying which people she was writing about when several of them shared first names, This was a very interesting biography! Біографія Гаррієт Спенсер, сестри знаменитої Джорджіани, Хоч і люблю я такі біографії, але ця йшла зі скрипом, бо якась нудна вона, чи що. Автор хоч і намагається показати героїню з усіх боків, але все одно виходить нуднувато. Все як у всіх у вищому суспільстві тієї пори, картярські борги, позашлюбні звязки, подорожі і народження дітей і от не знаю чому, але в декого це надзвичайно цікаво, а в Гаррієт викликає відчуття just another one. Хоча деякі подробиці цікаві, про її доньку Кароліну, закохану безтямно у Байрона. А ще була одна позашлюбна від світського лева і блискучого політика, який з її відома одружився з її небогою, і та теж була в курсі і нею Гаррієт усе життя піклувалася, але так ніколи і не призналась, що мати, а не лише благоволителька. Sweeping and scandalous, rich and compellingly readable, here is the first biography of Lady Harriet Spencer, ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, and devoted sister of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.
Harriet Spencer was without a doubt one of the most glamorous, influential, and notorious aristocrats of the Regency period,

The second daughter of the prestigious Spencer family, Harriet was born into wealth and privilege, Intelligent, attractive, and exceedingly eager to please, at nineteen years of age she married Frederick, Viscount Duncannon, an aloof, distant relative, Unfortunately, it was not a happy union the only trait they shared was an unhealthy love of gambling, The marriage produced four children, yet Harriet followed in the footsteps of her older sister and began a series of illicit dalliances, including one with the prominent and charismatic playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Then she met Lord Granville Leveson Gower, handsome and twelve years her junior, Their yearslong affair resulted in the birth of two children, and all but consumed Harriet: concealing both pregnancies from her husband required great skill, Had the children been discovered, it surely would have resulted in divorcewhich would have been disastrous,

Harriets life was dramatic, and the historymaking events she observed were equally fascinating, She was an eyewitness to the French Revolution she participated in both the euphoria following Nelsons victory at Trafalgar and the outpouring of grief at his spectacular funeral she was privy to the debauchery of the Prince Regents wife, Princess Caroline.
She quarreled bitterly with Lord Byron when he pursued her young daughter rumor had it that he was truly interested in Harriet herself, She traveled through wartorn Europe during both the rise and the fall of Napoleon and saw the devastating aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, where her son was gravely injured.
Harriet, along with her sister, was one of the leading female political activists of her day her charm allowed her to campaign noisily for Charles James Foxwhile still retaining influence over supporters of his rival, William Pitt the Younger.
Harriet survived Georgiana by fifteen years, living to see the coronation of George IV,

Janet Gleesons elegant, pageturning style brings Harriets story vividly to life, Based on painstaking archival research, Privilege and Scandal gives readers an inside look at the lives of the British aristocracy during the decadent eighteenth centurywhile at the same time shining the spotlight on one of the eras most fascinating women.



From the Hardcover edition, Seeing as I had read the bio of her sister, it seemed only fair to read about Harriet,

Along with her sister Georgiana, Harriet ruled society of Regency England, She fell victim to all of its viceslove affairs, gambling, politics, Involved in the very heart of power, Harriet manipulated, arranged, and negotiated between the Tory and Whig factions,

Fun to read, well documented, and vibrant, this book was incredbily interesting, and gave a lot of insight into both the woman, and her time period.


Also read the book on Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire,
An excellent, well researched and very readable account of the life of Harriet Spencer, Countess of Bessborough, Sister of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and mother of Lady Caroline Lamb, Harriet was at the centre of British social and political life during the lateth earlyth centuries.
Highly recommended reading for anyone interested in this period, Extremely interesting and scandalous life of Harriet Spencer, Having read the book written about her sister Georginia, Duke of Devonshire much of the information overlap however, one does get insight into Harriet's personality, her many dalliaces and her love and comment to family and politics.
Harriet's sister, Georgiana, has been more famous over time see THE DUCHESS, with Keira Knightley, but in their own time, the inseparable sisters were almost equally celebrated.
What an extraordinary life she led, Based on her own voluminous correspondence with friends and family, Harriet's life as anth century aristocrat was certainly privileged, but filled with emotion and exuberant highs and lows.
She and her sister lost fortunes gambling, In the relaxed standards of her time, she carried on affairs with people like the playwright Sheridan, and diplomat Lord Granville Leveson Gower having two children with him.
He ended up happily married to her niece, She met and disliked Napoleon, met and enjoyed politicians and poets, She was in Paris as the peace of Amiens collapsed, and years later had to flee France during Napoleons return from Elba, She tried to chase Lord Byron away from her daughter, Lady Caroline Lamb, and failed miserably Caro's obsession with Byron is a scandalous legend, All in all, a fascinating biography of a woman who comes across as amazingly likable through all of her swings of fortune, Very interesting read, fascinating life, but it is hard for me to like Harriet, It amazes me how selfish she was, She had numerous affairs and had two children by one of those men, who had to be given up, but that didn't stop her, She was heavily into gambling just like her sister and got into some serious debt along with her husband, Her husband was a strange man, He was so unobservant that he didn't even notice that she was pregnant with the two children that she had with another man, On the other hand, she was very kind to everyone, so she did have good qualities, but her life seems wasted to me, Too much scandal, just like the title of the book! As I've said repeatedly in my reviews, I'm a confirmed Anglophile with a particular love for micro history.
I am deeply fascinated by the Georgian/Regency period, amp that fact has a lot to do with the Spencer family, particularly Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, amp her sister, the less famously writtenabout Harriet, Lady Duncannon.
Her life was every bit as full as Georgiana's, though, amp she wrote just as much about it amp was written about, as well, Gleeson does a remarkable job of tracing the story of her various scandals, from her rather unsuccessful marriage, her inveterate gambling, her various love affairs, amp even the shadowy existence of her two illegitimate children especially remarkable considering that her children amp family found many of her writings full enough of potential familial humiliation to have heavily censored the ones they didn't outright destroy.
Yet more proof that life is way more of a soap opera than most of us ever believe amp that our love of seeing it in the celebrities of our time is far from new.
A really intriguing look at the lesser known of the Spencer girls Harriet, the sister of Georgiana, and quite a person in her own right.
This biography struck the right note with me, and I enjoyed it very much, Recommended for those who loved the film The Duchess, or who have read Amanda Foreman's biography about Georgiana, What really surprised me was how Harriet was related to, or influenced, many of those powerplayers in the Victorian period,

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I really enjoyed this, What an amazing life. She was able to influence politics despite having virtually no rights as a woman, Yes she

was a party girlbut she was also very smart and grasped politics! Given the scope of the subject, Harriet Spencer was an intimate of Lord Byron or was he pursuing her daughter a fraught subject, was present at the battle of Waterloo, and general debauched herself at a court that was reknown for debauchery, this book fell quite flat for me.
Perhaps I'm not truly into debauchery or perhaps I prefer it with a spice of wit and intelligence, which the author doesn't seem to capture for our Harriet.
Lots of nasty secrets, but they didn't hold my interest, It was hard perservering to the end, More like.

This was very well done and Harriet was a fascinating subject, Gleeson, despite being able to lean on Amanda Foreman's work about Georgiana, clearly spent months or years in study and research,

Gleeson did a fabulous job of illustrating Harriet's influence on the politics of the time and also showing the change in womens roles in politics over the course of her life.
Harriet was alive through many milestones in history and Gleeson did a excellent job of placing her there and giving context to what was happening at various times.


I thought her depictions of most everyone were nuanced and she was careful to not make people villains of the tale, even though it would be easy to do so in many cases.
Harriet and everyone she was involved with were human and had weaknesses and strengths, They certainly lived some wild lives!

The author also did an excellent job at keeping this as a biography of Harriet as herself, not Harriet, Georgiana's sister.


This took a couple chapters before I felt the author hit her stride, but then the rest of the book was really well done and kept my interest throughout.
An enjoyable look at the life of Georgiana's younger sister Harriet, Unfortunately although Harriet was a great correspondent throughout her life many of her letters were destroyed outright or heavily edited in order to whiten her reputation.
As a result the book does run into some generalities but nevertheless it is an interesting account of an aristocratic life at the end of the Georgian period / start of the regency.


Harriet was extremely wellconnected socially, married 'well', and had many lovers from the highest society, one of whom went on the marry her niece of the same name.
Her daughter was the infamous Caroline Lamb, who may well have ended up marrying her own uncle due to the various affairs of the nobility in this period.
This was a tough read which surprised me, I was very interested in the subject! Oh this was such a beautiful, poignant book that I didn't want to finish, I think it's definitely comparable to the Amanda Forman's masterpiece "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire" Harriet led a similar life to her more famous sister: involvement in Whig politics, love affairs, hidden illegitimate children, and the gambling oh man, the gambling.
. . these women had an utter talent for racking up completely ruinous debts, What I found most interesting in this book were the relationships between Harriet and her hot, younger lover and father of two illegitimate children and her extremely troubled daughter Caroline Ponsonby, who later married Queen Victoria's first prime minister, Lord Melbourne.
Oh and "Lord M" might have been Caroline's own uncle!!!

Seriously, read this book if you're a lover of theth century, .