I have talked on this site about the wonderful BBC show
Downton Abbey. I don’t know how many people know this but a book, To Marry an
English Lord, was the inspiration for it. This show is also not the first to
tackle this fascinating subject, a 90s BBC TV mini-series with Mira Sorvino
called The Buccaneers (based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel) was. When I
found out about the book, of course I had to have it. I finished it a while ago
but am only now getting around to writing a review for it.
This was quite a pithy read and filled with witty anecdotes.
It seems that, as always, when the wealthy have more money than they could ever
spend in a thousand lifetimes, they choose not to do good with it but to buy
more outlandish things. Instead of Islands or private planes or throwing 200K
birthday parties for toddlers, the noveau riche daughters of the new world bought
titles. They didn’t buy them directly, like going down to the local “Titles R
Us”, they had to marry those who could confer them.
At the end of the 19th century, many sons of the
nobility had run down manor houses and a lifestyle of shooting weekends,
gambling, and yachting to pay for. The rub was that they no longer had the
money needed; these old family scions always exceeded their income. That is
where the young American ladies came into the picture. The old money in America
was not accepting of the new wealth of the up and coming captains of industry.
The gorgon guarding the gates of social acceptability was the indomitable Mrs.
Astor, who treated New York as her personal property. It was her that drove so
many of the young, obscenely wealthy young ladies across the pond. There, new
money was not a hindrance, NOT
having money was. Some of the marriages were successful like Jennie, mother of
Winston Churchill. Some were a disaster like Consuelo, Duchess of Marlboro.
This book takes us into the world of balls, Worth gowns, strict etiquette (at
this time the manners were as confining as the clothes), shooting weekends in
the country, professional beauties, and the London Season. Sitting at the apex
of this small but vicious society was the one they all fought over for
recognition and patronage; the person that if he looked your way you deem
yourself a success. It seems strange that a fat, pop-eyed, dissolute, libertine
was the arbiter of the fashionable world at the turn of the last century.
Bertie, the Prince of Wales, the future King, was everything his father was
not. He drank too much, had numerous mistresses, was a spendthrift and a
constant source of embarrassment to his mother. Sometimes I think the only
reason she lived so long was to thwart his ambition to be King. It was while he
was waiting that he swirled at the center of this curious phenomenon of our
countries shared history.
This was a light, quick read but enjoyable and if you watch
Downton Abbey it is definitely worth picking up. I have heard that Julian
Fellows the creator of Downton is going to make a prequel series about a young Cora
meeting Lord Crawley and their relationship. Lady Mary and her sisters, and all
the other children of the marriages of this sort, were the product of women
like Cora. Now it’s time to see the genesis, and like Downton, it will be
fashion porn. You will read some interesting facts and many of the ladies come
off far better than the men they marry. It also takes you deep into the way
wealthy people of this time lived. I found myself amazed at how they imprisoned
themselves in the rigid society they had constructed. They were never free to
speak their mind or socialize with anyone not approved of. Every gesture, every
article of clothing, every word, was watched with the steely unforgiving gaze
of a hundred eyes. Men and women had to change clothes for every event and it
would take hours. I honestly don’t know when they had time to sleep. They had
clothes for breakfast, clothes for midmorning riding, clothes for luncheon,
clothes for tea, clothes for dinner, clothes for balls, the opera, and court.
And god forbid you be seen in anything twice. These wealthy men and women had
enough money to do whatever they wanted and choose to construct invisible
prisons of propriety around themselves. Those that were happiest were the ones
who were strong enough to live life on their own terms; they were few and by
far the most interesting.
I have the paperback version of this book, pgs. 403 with
many pictures and additions.
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