Happy New Year from Scandalous Women

Wishing all of my readers a very healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year.

Scandalous Review: The Horror of Love

Title:   The Horror of Love: Nancy Mitford and Gaston Palewski in Paris and London

Author:  Lisa Hilton
Publisher: Pegasus
Publication date:  December 12, 2012
Pages: 336         

How acquired:  Net Galley

Overview:  "Oh, the horror of love!" Nancy Mitford once exclaimed to her sister Diana Mosley.

 Elegant and intelligent, Nancy was a renowned wit and a popular author. Yet this bright, waspish woman, capable of unerring emotional analysis in her work gave her heart to a well-known philanderer who went on to marry another woman. Was Nancy that unremarkable thing—a deluded lover—or was she a remarkable woman engaged in a sophisticated love affair? Gaston Palewski was the Free French commander and one of the most influential politicians in post-war Europe. Their life together was spent amongst the most exciting, powerful, and controversial figures in the center of reawakening Europe. She supported him throughout his tumultuous career and he inspired some of her best work, including The Pursuit of Love.

Lisa Hilton's provocative and emotionally challenging book reveals how, with discipline, gentleness, and a great deal of elegance, Nancy Mitford and Gaston Palewski achieved an affair of the heart.

Meet the Author

Lisa Hilton is the critically acclaimed author of Queens Consort and Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV's Mistress, the Real Queen of France. She lives in London.

My thoughts:  The first summer I ever spent in England, I had the opportunity to see a new musical called The Mitford Girls.  Since I had never heard of the Mitford's, and had no idea why anyone would want to write a musical about them, I declined.  It wasn't until later that I learned that Nancy Mitford was the author of Love in a Cold Climate and The Pursuit of Love, two books that I read and loved in high school.  Since then, I have read a great deal about the sisters.  Of course, much of my focus has been on the more colorful of the sisters, Diana, who married the British Facist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, Unity Mitford and Jessica.  Nancy I knew more as author, especially of Voltaire in Love, one of the books that I used as a source when I wrote Scandalous Women.  She always seemed like the dark horse of the family.  The more respectable, older sister, who married terribly and moved to Paris, her happy place.  So when I saw that Net Galley had Lisa Hilton's new biography of Nancy and Gaston Palewski, I jumped at the chance to review it. 

Unfortunately my enthusiasm soon waned once I started reading the book. I'm not sure that I can put my finger on it exactly, but I found the book rather dry and unsatisfying.  The book starts off with their first meeting in 1942 in London during the war and then flashes back to their respective childhoods.  Since I knew less about Gaston than I did about Nancy, I found the sections on his early childhood and his family history interesting, particularly the fact that he and his brother both converted to Catholicism (their parents were Jewish from Poland originally).

However, once the war starts, the book becomes not only a general history of the Free French but also a mini-biography of Charles de Gaulle.  Long stretches of narrative are devoted to the war in Africa and de Gaulle's interactions with both the English and the Americans. When Gaston is involved, I found it interesting but most of it was tedious to wade through.  I found myself putting the book down or skipping ahead to parts where Nancy was concerned.  Finally after about 150 pages, Nancy and Gaston finally meet but again we're told a lot about their relationship but we don't really see it.  Because of Gaston work, the couple spent a great deal of time apart over the 30 years of their relationship.

I'm also not quite sure what it was that drew these two people together, apart from their shared love of France, the 18th century, collecting objet d'arts, and going out to parties.  It's clear that Nancy fell madly in love with Gaston for some reason (apparently he was also good in the sack) but whether he actually loved Nancy is a matter of debate.   Like Jean-Paul Satre, he seemed to have many women, at one point in the book, besides Nancy, he was juggling at least 3 other women, all of them social acquaintainces of Nancy, including Susan Mary Alsop.  Hilton points out that Nancy's sister Diana was also married to a serial philanderer as was another good friend of hers, Lady Diana Cooper but that Nancy is pitied because she wasn't married to Gaston, she was just one of his many mistresses. 

By the end of the book, I felt I knew less about Gaston and Nancy but a great deal about post-war French politics and Parisian society after the war.  I'm also not sure that I liked either one of them very much either.  Hilton points out that Nancy was not a snob, which is partly true.  She was virulently anti-American despite the fact that she had never been there, and also her sister Jessica lived in the States for many years.

Verdict:  A perfectly serviceable but ultimately disappointing biography.

 

 

Hetty Green – America’s First Female Tycoon

I was first introduced Hetty Green during the Bicentennial.  LIFE Magazine had put out a special issue on noted American women during the previous two hundred years of the nation’s existence and Hetty was one of the women.  Of course, they chose the least flattering picture they could find, Hetty during her later years when she was noted for her eccentricities.  She was nicknamed “The Witch on Wall Street,” which is interesting when you consider there were hardly any women on Wall Street or in business in the 19^th century.  All of which makes Hetty’s accomplishments all the more remarkable.  Unlike Victoria Woodhull and her sister Tennessee Claflin, Hetty didn’t get her stock tips from a railroad tycoon like Cornelius Vanderbilt.  She studied the markets closely, bought low and sold high (Warren Buffett would have been proud), and kept her expenses low by borrowing a desk in the offices of Chemical bank (which later merged with J.P. Morgan).  For years, Hetty was known more for her eccentricities and her frugality and then for her business acumen.  In recent years, however, Hetty has been recognized for being the first American woman to make a substantial impact on Wall Street.  Her success paved the way for women such as Muriel Siebert and Sayra Lebenthal.

She was born Henrietta Howland Robinson in New Bedford, MA on November 21, 1834. At the time of her birth, New Bedford was a thriving town, whose primary industry was whaling.  Her family were Quakers who owned a large whaling fleet.  Her father was disappointed that she hadn’t been the longed for son, and her mother suffered from post-partum depression after her birth.  As a result, Hetty was farmed out to relatives, including her maternal grandfather Gideon Howland.  Feeling abandoned by the people who were supposed to love her, from an early age, Hetty began to act out and throw tantrums when she didn’t get her way.  It also led her to become a massive control freak as she got older.

Hetty became interested in finance, through reading the financial papers to her grandfather whose eyesight was failing. It became a way for her to connect not only to her grandfather but also to her father as well.  By the time she was 13, she was the family bookkeeper.  Despite her financial savvy, when her father died in 1864, and left her $7.5 million ($107 million in 2010), the money was still left in a trust. Hetty was furious that she was not allowed to control the bulk of her money.  Hetty had invested a small amount of money on her own; she invested what she could in Civil War bonds, against the objections of her family.  Hetty made a killing, as she would continue to do for the rest of her life. 

When her aunt Sylvia died and left the bulk of her fortune to charity, Hetty was livid.  Her aunt had used her fortune throughout her life as a way to control people; Hetty had catered to her in the expectation that she would inherit everything.  Showing just how ruthless she could be, Hetty challenged the will’s validity in court by producing an earlier will which allegedly left the entire estate to her.  The case dragged on for years, and ultimately Hetty ended up losing, after the court decided that the signature on the will had been forged.

While Hetty was no raving beauty, she was considered attractive with fine blue eyes and a tall, shapely figure.  While living in New York, she met Edward Henry Green, who came from a wealthy Vermont family.  Thirteen years older, he was tall and handsome, with wavy blond hair, and blue eyes.  While Hetty was reticent, no interest in clothes or parties; and had no small talk , her beau had a robust personality, was a witty conversationalist filled with amusing anecdotes, and he was the type of man who feasted on life. Fluent in several languages, he had lived abroad for twenty years.  After a long courtship, the two married when Hetty was 33 years old. In a sort of 19^th century pre-nuptial agreement, she made him renounce all rights to her money before their wedding.  For several years, they lived abroad in London, making their base at the ultra-exclusive Langham Hotel.   The couple soon had two children, Edward Howland Robinson born in 1868 and Sylvia born almost three years later in 1871.  While her husband was much more of a gambler when it came to investing, Hetty was much more practical when it came to money.  She had a simple investment strategy, conservative investments, substantial cash reserves, and an exceedingly cool head.  While other investors might drop their stock at the first sign of a dip in the markets, Hetty would hold on until the stock rebounded.  She initially invested heavily in greenbacks, which according to Wikipedia, were notes printed by the U.S. government immediately after the Civil War. While other investors were wary, Hetty invested heavily and made $1.2 million from her investment in the first year.  She later expanded her portfolio to include railroads, eventually feuding with most of the major players including Collis Huntington.

In 1885, the financial house John J. Cisco collapsed, in which Hetty was the largest investor.  In the fall out, Hetty discovered that not only was her husband the firm’s biggest debtor but that the firm had used her money as collateral for their loans to her husband.  While Hetty had no problem turning a blind eye to her husband’s infidelities and gambling, she put her foot down when it came to her money.  Despite his transgressions, the idea of divorcing him never occurred to her.  The couple separated, although they stayed on friendly terms, sharing lunch occasionally, and Hetty even nursed him in the years before his death. 

Over the years, Hetty began to develop a reputation as an eccentric.  Believing merchants raised the prices when they knew that she was coming, she started dressing in old clothes and using a false name to get a better price.  When she lived in New York, instead of renting a house or an apartment in one of the new luxury buildings like the Dakota, Hetty preferred to live in boarding houses because it was not just cheap but convenient.  Later in life, she moved from one furnished apartment to another in Brooklyn and Manhattan in order to avoid having a permanent residence (and to avoid paying income tax).  When the five boroughs combined into what we now know as New York City, she moved across the river to Hoboken. She ate baked onions because she believed that they warded off colds. Instead of eating in fancy restaurants like Delmonico’s, Hetty brought her lunch to work every day to save money.  She allegedly wore her clothes until they were falling apart.  There were rumors that she ate oatmeal that she heated on the office radiator. 

The biggest and most juicy myth was the story that Hetty’s frugality cost her son his leg.  Ned injured his leg while sledding at their home in Vermont.  Hetty applied a home remedy to try and heal the leg but she also called the local doctor. When it appeared that the methods were working, she canceled the doctor who had been called to attend him, because she would have had to pay him for his time, which she felt would be wasted since Ned appeared fine.  Unfortunately for Ned, the healing was only temporary.  Hetty, to her credit, when she realized that Ned’s leg was not healed, took him to see several eminent physicians. Almost all of them recommended that Ned have the leg amputated which both Hetty and her son were reluctant to have happen.  Over time, the leg grew worse and eventually had to be amputated.  She couldn’t escape the rumors even in death; she supposedly died of apoplexy when she argued with a maid about the virtues of skimmed milk. The truth was that Hetty had been suffering ill-health for a number of years.  Diagnosed with a hernia, she refused to pay $150 to have an operation, considering the price too high.  Instead, she put a ruler in her underwear, pressed against the hernia. 

Many of the stories were spread by her mostly male business competitors who gave her the lovely nickname of the ‘Witch of Wall Street,’ partly due to her habit of mostly wearing black. It no doubt galled them that Hetty was so successful in business that the City of New York came to Hetty more than once to help keep the city afloat.  Hetty could be just as ruthless and litigious as any male tycoon. She sued the trustees of her father’s estate, accusing them of mismanagement, and despite the negative publicity, she foreclosed on a church that had gotten behind in its loan payments.  When the pastor told her that she was in danger of not getting into heaven, Hetty told him to pray for her.  Hetty enjoyed making money, the wheeling and dealing, much more than she did spending it. While other tycoons built lavish mansions, monuments to their wealth, or donated large sums to charity, Hetty quietly went about her business, crisscrossing the country to inspect the various properties she owned. Instead of just donating money to charity, Hetty preferred to help others help themselves by providing jobs whenever possible.

Hetty believed that it was important for women to have some knowledge about business, how to write a check, open a bank account, read a financial statement, in order not to be taken advantage of by unscrupulous businessmen.  She believed that knowledge of business would make them better wives, since they would have an understanding of the pressures their husbands were under. However, Hetty didn’t believe in women’s suffrage, that they should have the vote or even run for political office.   Despite her success in business, she still believed that a woman’s greatest job was to be a wife and a mother.

But all of her money made Hetty paranoid.  She believed that not only her aunt but her father had been poisoned.  She began carrying a gun to protect against the possibility of an attack. Determined to protect her children against fortune hunters, she made her son Ned promise not to get married for twenty years (he eventually married his long-time girlfriend after his mother’s death). When her daughter Sylvie eventually married in her late thirties to Matthew Astor Wilks, Hetty made sure that he signed a pre-nuptial agreement waiving his right to her fortune.  At point, Hetty moved into the brand new Plaza Hotel, but she moved out after six weeks, sick and tired of the letters she received from people begging for money. She also became afraid that she would be kidnapped and made detours to evade the would-be pursuer.

Hetty finally passed away on July 3, 1916 at the age of 81.  She left a fortune of between $100 million to $200 million (or $1.9 – $3.8 billion in 2006 dollars), arguably making her the richest woman in the world at the time.  Apart from a small bequest to a relative, the majority of her wealth was left to her two children, Ned and Sylvie.  Freed from his mother’s eagle eye, Ned spent lavishly but still managed to leave his sister a substantial fortune after his death.  Since neither of Hetty’s children had children of their own, Hetty’s fortune ended up being dispersed after Sylvie’s death to 63 charities and financial institutions.

Further Reading:

Farquhar, Michael:  A Treasury of Foolishly Forgotten Americans: Pirates, Skinflints, Patriots, and Other Colorful Characters Stuck in the Footnotes of History. New York:  Perigee Books (2008)

Slack, Charles, Hetty: The Genius And Madness Of America's First Female Tycoon. New York: Ecco (2004).
Wallach, Janet:  The Richest Woman in America – Hetty Green in the Gilded Age. New York:  Nan A. Talese/Doubleday (2012)

Scandalous Review: The Queen Mother - The Untold Story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Who Became Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Title:  The Queen Mother - The Untold Story of Elizabeth Bowes Lyon, Who Became Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Author:  Lady Colin Campbell

Publisher:  St. Martin’s Press

Pub Date:   April 2012

How Acquired:  New York Public Library

What it’s about:   (from the inside cover)

 Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother has been called the "most successful queen since Cleopatra." Her personality was so captivating that even her arch-enemy Wallis Simpson wrote about "her legendary charm." Portrayed as a selfless partner to the King in the Oscar-winning movie The King's Speech, The Queen Mother is most often remembered from her later years as the smiling granny with the pastel hats. When she died in 2002, just short of her 102nd birthday, she was praised for a long life well lived.

 But there was another side to her story. For the first time, Lady Colin Campbell shows us that the untold life of the Queen Mother is far more fascinating and moving than the official version that has been peddled ever since she became royal in 1923. With unparalleled sources—including members of the Royal Family, aristocrats, and friends and relatives of Elizabeth herself—this mesmerizing account takes us inside the real and sometimes astonishing world of the royal family.

About the Author:   

Lady Colin Campbell, who is connected to the royal family through mutual ancestors and marriage, is the author of the New York Times bestseller Diana in Private—which was the first book to reveal the truth behind the "fairytale" marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales—as well as The Royal Marriages: What Really Goes on in the Private World of the Queen and Her Family, and The Real Diana.

My thoughts:

When I first heard about this book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to bother to read it, despite the fact that I basically will read anything about the Royal Family.  I’d read an article in the Daily Mail about the book which made it clear that the author had an axe to grind with the Queen Mother.  What made me change my mind were two things:  I saw the book at my local library, and I had read Lady Colin’s previous books, much of what she had written about Diana in particular was later confirmed by Andrew Morton’s book. So I thought I would give the book a chance. Well after reading the book, I can say that she doesn’t so much as take an axe to the Queen Mother, but more like a chisel.

She starts off the book with the outrageous claim that the Queen Mother (Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon as she was then) was conceived in a sort of Edwardian surrogate mother situation.  The Queen Mum’s mother supposedly had a bit of a nervous breakdown after the death of her oldest child, and it was suggested that she not attempt to have any more children.  According to Lady Colin, the couple desperately wanted to add to their already enormous brood, so the future Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne conceived not one but two children with the family cook.  The author bases her evidence on the fact that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor used to call the Queen Mum ‘Cookie’ as a rather vicious nickname and the fact that there is some discrepancy about where the Queen was actually born.  She also claims that the Earl, on his deathbed, confessed to his physician that the true story of the Queen’s origins as well as that of her baby brother David.  Oh, and Elizabeth and David were referred to as the ‘Benjamins’ in the family, a reference to the biblical story of Jacob and Rachel (Rachel had offered her handmaiden to Jacob as a surrogate mother since she was unable to conceive).

Her second outrageous claim is that Princess Elizabeth (Elizabeth II) and Princess Margaret were conceived by artificial insemination because the Duchess of York as she was then, hated sex and had avoided it ever since her honeymoon.  In her defense, she’s not the first author to come up with this theory.  Kitty Kelly wrote in her book The Royals that Bertie was sterile due to the mumps, which is why the royal couple had to resort to artificial insemination to have a child. Campbell also claims that Queen Maud of Norway conceived her son with King Haakon VII the same way.  Lady Colin also writes that denied the martial bed, Bertie went back to his previous girlfriend, an actress named Evelyn ‘Boo’ Laye for comfort.

Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, according to Lady Colin, is a steel magnolia.  She’s all charm and sweetness on the surface, but manipulative and vindictive when you cross her.  Initially, she’d set her sights on the Prince of Wales, but she wasn’t his type of woman.  She wasn’t sleek and sophisticated enough and lacked sex appeal.  Unable to win the grand prize, Elizabeth settled for his brother who had long pursued her.  Campbell states that Elizabeth almost lost Bertie because King George VI and Queen Mary grew tired of the way she strung him along, hoping for a better offer.  Once married, she set out to become indispensable to him emotionally, soothing his rages, helping him with his speech difficulties, forging a tight unit.  If she couldn’t have the Prince of Wales, then she would help Bertie become the best man he could possibly be.  Sort of making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear if you will. 

Fans of the Queen Mum will be most outraged by the claims that she manipulated events behind the scenes to get Edward VIII off the throne so that she and Bertie could rule.  Apparently a woman scorned, she was determined not to lose her place in the spotlight to anyone.  Already she’d had to deal with Bertie’s younger brother George marrying a genuine Princess, Princess Marina of Greece, who supposedly treated Elizabeth with disdain.  She wasn’t about to give way to a twice-divorced American woman.  Lady Colin claims that Elizabeth worked her magic on the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang, amongst other courtiers who were dismayed not just by the idea of a twice-divorced Queen but because the Prince of Wales had ideas about modernizing the monarchy.   This bit rings a bit true given the flack that Prince Charles has apparently gotten about wanting to limit the Firm to William and Harry and their children, cutting out Prince Andrew’s kids from performing royal duties.  Most egregious is her claims that if Edward VIII had stayed on the throne, he could somehow have prevented World War II from happening or at least kept Britain out of it.

Although this book is half the size of William Shawcross’s biography of the Queen Mother, it feels just as long.  She has a tendency to go off on tangents, about Thelma Furness and Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, the Mountbattens, Princess Alice of Greece, Queen Marie of Rumania and on and on.  When she finally does get back to the main thrust of her story, the Queen Mother, it’s hard to remember what was happening before the tangent.  While Campbell does give the Queen Mother her due during World War II, and that, while she may not have been in love with Bertie, they did manage to forge a strong and enduring bond, she does so begrudgingly.  I agree with her that it was ridiculous for Elizabeth to be adamant that Wallis not be allowed to use the title HRH because if the Duke and Duchess ever divorced it would be embarrassing for her to still HRH, Mrs. Bob Smith.  Campbell rightly points out that both Diana and Sarah, Duchess of York lost the right to use HRH after their divorce.  She makes a point of comparing the two women and declaring Bertie and the Duke of Windsor married similar women, charming, dynamic but who also dominated the two men who were putty in their hands.  This, however, she blames on Queen Mary for withholding affection from her two oldest sons.

Campbell manages to wrap up the last 50 years of the Queen’s life in about 15 pages, most of which are a litany of how the Queen manipulated her way into having a bigger role on the royal stage than previous dowager Queens, how she ruined Princess Margaret’s life by not supporting her romance with Group Captain Peter Townsend, and by siding with Lord Snowdon in the divorce, how she hated Prince Philip calling him ‘The Hun’ and tried to undermine his marriage to the Queen, her promotion of Lady Diana Spencer as the perfect Princess of Wales until Diana proved that she was not a team player, and her devotion to the Prince of Wales at the expense of her other grandchildren who were not as important because they were not the heir to the throne.   She also spends a great deal of time in the book criticizing everything from the way the Queen dressed to the way she parented her children.  At the end of the book, she grudgingly admits a certain admiration for the woman she has spent the previous 400 pages eviscerating.

Most of Campbell’s information comes from people who were no fans of the Queen Mother, such as Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, the Windsors themselves, and other assorted society figures.  She clearly comes down on the side of Duke and Duchess, lamenting the fact that he was ‘forced’ off the throne.  She quotes liberally from Hugo Vicker's and William Shawcross' biographies but solely to bolster her own conclusions. She takes great delight at revealing what they were supposedly too polite to say in their books. One wonders why Lady Colin would want to write a book about someone she so clearly dislikes.

Verdict:  A completely biased and inflammatory look at the late Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.  I would suggest readers check out the Shawcross biography or Hugo Vicker’s biography of the Queen Mother.

Scandalous Review: A Royal Affair

Title:  A Royal Affair

Cast

Mads Mikkelsen as Johann Friedrich Struensee

Alicia Vikander as Caroline Mathilde
Mikkel Følsgaard as Christian VII
David Dencik as Ove Høegh-Guldberg
Søren Malling as Hartmann
Trine Dyrholm as Juliane Marie
William Jøhnk Nielsen as Frederik VI
Cyron Bjørn Melville as Enevold Brandt
Rosalinde Mynster as Natasha
Laura Bro as Louise von Plessen
Bent Mejding as J.H.E. Bernstorff
Thomas W. Gabrielsson as Schack Carl Rantzau
Søren Spanning as Münster
John Martinus as Ditlev Reventlow
Erika Guntherová as Hofdame
Harriet Walter as Augusta, Princess of Wales
Klaus Tange as Minister

Director & Screenwriter – Nicolaj Arcel

Distributed by:  Nordisk Film, Magnolia Pictures (US)

Based on Princesse af blodet by Bodil Steensen-Leth

What it’s about:  The story is set in the 18th century, at the court of the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark, and focuses on the romance between the queen and the royal physician Struensee.

My thoughts:  I first discovered the love triangle of Caroline Matilda, Johann Struensee and Christian VIII in Eleanor Herman’s Sex with the Queen several years and was fascinated by the story. So much so that I blogged about it here. So I was very excited to discover that there was a new film coming out called A Royal Affair (this is not the first time Caroline Matilda’s story has been dramatized.  Apparently there is a 1935 British film called The Dictator about the love triangle.  Yet another film that I will be emailing TCM about!).

The film starts out with Caroline Matilda writing a letter to her children from her exile in Celle, detailing the story of her love affair with Struensee.  The film then flashes back to the 15 year old Caroline Matilda in Britain just before she’s about to embark on her journey to Denmark to meet her husband for the first time.  Her mother, Augusta, the widow of Frederick, Prince of Wales, gives her a little bit of marital advice.  Caroline Matilda embarks on her journey with great hopes for her marriage, which are quickly abused once she meets her groom, King Christian VII.  She first meets him hiding behind a tree displaying an odd giggle; he's mentally deranged and infantile. Being the dutiful princess she is, she does her duty in the marital bed with her reluctant husband.  I wish the filmmakers had included Christian’s public declaration that he couldn’t love Caroline Matilda because it was “unfashionable to love one’s wife,” instead of just having him tell Struensee in the film that she’s just boring.

 

She also discovers that some of the books that she brought with her from England were confiscated because they were banned in Denmark.  This is the first hint that the audience receives that Caroline Matilda might have ideas that are considered dangerous. While we are introduced to the principal players who become a thorn in Carolina Matilda’s side including Dowager Queen Juliana Marie, we never really get a chance to see how they tried to turn husband and wife against each other.  We also don’t see her chafing under the strictures of the puritanical Danish court or how Caroline Matilda managed to get around them.  One of the things that she did that was considered scandalous was that she used to take walks in Copenhagen, royal and noble Danish women normally only traveled by carriage. Caroline Matilda’s lady in waiting Louise von Plessen is exiled from court but we never learn why in the film.

Before too long the audience is introduced to Johann Friedrich Struensee, a German physician living in the Danish province of Altona.  Struensee is handsome, charismatic and burning with Enlightenment ideas.  He is the protégée of two exiles from the Danish court who put him forth as the ideal physician for the young King as he travels throughout Europe. Struensee agrees to the job and soon finds that the King is highly susceptible to his suggestions.  Caroline Matilda is not so taken with her husband’s new friend but Struensee soon finds the way to her heart by not just listening to her but taking her riding, and sharing his ideas with her.  There is a lovely scene where he slips her some anonymous pamphlets that he had written. Soon Caroline has fallen head over heels for the doctor and takes the scandalous step of inviting him into her bed.

This is where the film really takes off.  Princess Diana famously said “there were three of us in this marriage and it was a bit crowded.” In the case of Struensee, Caroline Matilda and Christian, he’s the glue that keeps the royal couple together.  He’s a father figure to Christian (whose own father died when he was 17), and a lover and accomplice of Caroline Matilda.  Although the couple are passionate lovers, they are equally as passionate about how they can change the kingdom. With Struensee’s help, Christian begins to act like a King, dissolving the council when they refuse to push through his reforms much to everyone’s dismay.  The puppet king, who sat in dull silence at council meetings, signing documents without reading them, is no more.

 

The film is lush, old-fashioned romance, and intellectual bodice ripper.  Mads Mikkelsen, known to American audiences as Le Chiffre in Casino Royale, proves capable of doing more than just being a heavy in films.  Like the historical Struensee, he has unconventional good looks, and a towering masculine presence. Unlike the overly dressed and manicured courtiers, Mikkelsen’s Struensee favors dark, plain clothing and wears his hair unpowdered.  In Mikkelsen’s performance it’s easy to see who both Christian and Caroline Matilda could be seduced. His Mikkelsen is ambitious but he genuinely seems to care for the royal couple, they are not just a means to an end. Unlike the real Caroline Matilda, Alicia Vikander is gorgeous and she looks amazing in the costumes. She’s also a lot more knowing and sophisticated that I think the original Caroline Matilda was.  However, she glows whenever she’s on screen, and she and Mikkelsen have incredible chemistry in their scenes together. The film takes its time developing their relationship; Vikander ably portrays an unhappy woman ripe for seduction. The real find in the film is Mikkel Følsgaard who plays Christian VII. Truthfully his is the hardest role to play, Christian VII is not the brightest bulb on the tree, and he is willful and childlike, prone to tantrums with a cruel streak. The historical Christian was also psychologically abused by his tutor.  Folsgaard manages to convey someone who clearly has mental problems but who also needs someone to take a firm but gentle hand with him. One of the saddest scenes in the film is at the end, when he’s basically told by the head of the council to go play in a corner,  that he’s not needed.

The movie is a little bit too long and it sort of glosses over the fact that King ends up divorcing Caroline Matilda, and that Struensee confessed to his crimes because he thought she had confessed.  Also Caroline Matilda died in Celle two years after the events in the film not five. These are small quibbles because the film is just so sumptuous and wonderful, particularly after the disappointment that was Farewell, My Queen.  It also gets a little heavy handed at times with the mentions of Hamlet and the love triangle of Lancelot, Guinevere and King Arthur.

The Verdict:  Well worth seeing but it might be helpful to bone up a little on the background before seeing it.  There is no mention of the fact that Caroline Matilda and Christian are cousins or that her brother is King George III.

Katherine Hepburn Exhibit: Dressed for Stage and Screen

 

Billy Rose Theatre Collection, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Most of the time living in New York is delightful, and there are few other cities on this planet (apart from London) that I could see myself living.  However, holiday weekends in New York can be a pain, particularly this past weekend with all the sales going on.  To escape the crowds, I headed up to the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center to see the Katherine Hepburn exhibt entitled 'Dressed for State and Screen.'

While I've been a fan of Katherine Hepburn's since I was a kid, I've never thought of her as a style icon but walking through the exhibit, I had to change my mind.  The exhibit was sponsored by the Kent State University Museum, the recipiant of Hepburn's costumes and other theatrical paraphenalia after her death.  The exhibit wasn't huge but the items they had on display were choice, including the evening gown that she wore in ADAM'S RIB, and the wedding dress that she wore in the Broadway production of The Lake (the famous production of which Dorothy Parker wrote that Hepburn ran 'the gamut of emotion from A to B').

Although I've read several biographies of Hepburn, I learned a few things during this exhibit that I hadn't known before. 

1)  Katherine Hepburn apparently at one time had a 20 inch waist.  Seriously, and I'm not talking with the help of a girdle or a corset.  I don't think my waist has ever been smaller than 24 inches!

2) She made a movie with Bob Hope called THE IRON PETTICOAT which hopefully TCM will show at some point because that is the craziest pairing probably in movie history.  No, I take that back pairing Hepburn with Nick Nolte was probably crazier.  Apparently in THE IRON PETTICOAT, Hepburn plays a Soviet flyer who is introduced to the delights of the west by Bob Hope.  Here's the synopsis from TCM:  'Captain Vinka Kovelenko defects from Russia, but not for political reasons. She defects because she feels discriminated against as a woman. Captain Chuck Lockwood gets the order to show her the bright side of capitalism, while she tries to convince him of the superority of communism. Naturally, they fall in love, but there's still the KGB, which doesn't like the idea of having a defected Russian officer running around in London.'  The exhibit had her costume from the film, a drab olive uniform.  Apparently Hepburn really wanted the uniform to be a drab color and not bright green.

3) Hepburn made quite a few films based on the plays of James M. Barrie including Little Minister and Quality Street.

Walking through the exhibit I was reminded of so many Hepburn films that I've loved over the years including THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (Apparently Hepburn wanted Clark Gable to be her co-star in the movie!).   The exhibit had a dress that she wore in the film that she later recycled when she played Amanda in a TV version of Tennessee William's play THE GLASS MENAGERIE with Sam Waterston.  She made 4 movies with Cary Grant, 3 of which are classics (BRINGING UP BABY, HOLIDAY and THE PHILADELPHIA STORY.)  It made me wish that she had done more movies with Grant and fewer with Spencer Tracy frankly.

The coolest part of the exhibit was the display case with various pairs of pants that Hepburn wore.  Along with Marlene Dietrich, she was one of the few starss back in the day who were regularly photographed in pants, which the studios hated but she would not be budged.  If they took away her jeans or her trousers, she would just apparently walk around on set in her underwear until they gave them back.  It's hard to imagine Hepburn wearing dresses, although she wore some stunning ones in her films.

The Hepburn exhibit contains quite a few photos, as well  as posters, scrapbooks, press clippings, and, of course, clothes. Some of the gems include two costumes from LOVE AMONG THE RUINS, a movie directed by George Cukor, starring Hepburn and Laurence Olivier; two outfits that Hepburn bought from Chanel when she played the designer in the Broadway musical Coco (she wasn't sure that Cecil Beaton's costumes would be right), her hat from Alice Adams, and the costumes from Mrs. Delafied. There's also a a letter from her favorite wig-making company, in London; her make-up case, several pairs of shoes, and an audio conversation between Hepburn and Louis Botto, a Playbill Magazine's senior editor, who was working on a biography of costume designer Walter Plunkett, with whom she did 11 films.

There's also a book, that's not tied to the exhibition, but is a must-have for all film buffs entitled Katherine Hepburn:  Rebel Chic.

The exhibit runs through January at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Book Review: Constance - The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde

Title:  Constance - The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde

Author:  Franny Moyle

Publisher: Pegasus

Publication date: 10/10/2012

Acquired through:  Net Galley

What it’s about: 

In the spring of 1895 the life of Constance Wilde changed irrevocably. Up until the conviction of her husband, Oscar, for homosexual crimes, she had held a privileged position in society. Part of a gilded couple, she was a popular children's author, a fashion icon, and a leading campaigner for women's rights. A founding member of the magical society The Golden Dawn, her pioneering and questioning spirit encouraged her to sample some of the more controversial aspects of her time. Mrs. Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in her own right. But that spring Constance's entire life was eclipsed by scandal. Forced to flee to the Continent with her two sons, her glittering literary and political career ended abruptly. She lived in exile until her death.

My thoughts:  I’ve been fascinated by Oscar Wilde ever since I saw Peter Egan’s portrayal of him in the miniseries Lillie on PBS back when I was in junior high.  This was the man who wrote one of my favorite plays THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, the celebrity of the late Victorian era, which just so happens to be one of my favorite periods of history as well. Over the years I’ve read biographies, attended an exhibition of his work at the Morgan Library, seen the film WILDE starring Stephen Fry as a curiously muted Oscar, I’ve even enjoyed Gyles Brandreth’s mystery series where Oscar plays sleuth.  However, I’ve never really given a thought to his wife Constance but then again neither did Wilde towards the end of his life (nor does she play much of a part in Brandreth’s mystery series either).  She was always just there in the background, rather muted, almost like the wallpaper.

Now however Franny Moyle has breathed life into Constance in her new biography Constance:  The Tragic and Scandalous Life of Mrs. Oscar Wilde which was just published recently in the US.  I almost bought the paperback in London (which has a lovely purple cover) but I already had so many books to bring back, that I was afraid that one more would tip the scales when I checked my bag at Heathrow.  I’m delighted to stay that the biography more than lives up to its title.  Constance turns out to have had quite an interesting and fruitful life apart from just being Mrs. Oscar Wilde, although she was more than proud to claim the name until the scandal broke in 1895.

Like Oscar, Constance Mary Lloyd (1859 – 1898) came from a rather distinguished family.  Her father Horace was a barrister who died when she was sixteen, leaving her with her mother who turned out to be emotionally as well as physically abusive to Constance.  Thanks to the intervention of her brother Otho, Constance ending up living with her paternal grandfather and her aunts after her mother remarried. Because of her mother’s treatment, Constance was initially rather shy and reticent in company, but she soon came out of her shell.  It’s a shame that she never went to university, although she took several courses, because she seems to have been incredibly intellectually curious.  She spoke several languages including French and German, later learning Italian during her time in exile in Italy.   Although she didn’t meet Oscar until she was an adult, their families knew each other in Ireland, Otho and Oscar were actually contemporaries at Oxford.  Oscar had recently had his heart broken by Florence Balcombe who rejected his suit in favor of another Irishman, Bram Stoker.

Looking at the pictures of Constance included in the biography, it’s easy to see why Oscar fell for her.  She’s very pretty, with luxurious dark hair and big eyes, with a solemn expression, at least in photographs.  By all accounts, Constance was a lively, outspoken woman who had many admirers although she only had eyes for Oscar.  At the time of their courtship, Oscar was embarking on the lecture tours of the United States that did much to make him famous on both sides of the Atlantic. The couple were finally married in the spring of 1884, moving shortly afterwards into their home at Tite Street, decorated by Edwin Godwin, that would forever after be associated with Wilde. Within two years, Constance and Oscar would have two sons, Cyril and Vvyan.

It was fascinating to discover that Constance was more than just Mrs. Oscar Wilde, an appendage on his arm, at first nights and social gatherings.  Constance was determined from the beginning of their marriage, out of both necessity and also her own desire, to have some sort of a career.  At first she thought of going on the stage, but determined that she had neither the talent or nor the drive for it, especially once she had children. She determined to become a writer, and actually succeeded, at first writing theater reviews, and then publishing several books for children.  When Oscar became the editor of Women’s World, Constance published a few articles, but she then became the editor for the newsletter for the Radical Dress Society.  Constance also held “at-homes” which were wildly popular with their artistic and bohemian crowd.  In fact, Constance’s social life was just as active as Oscar’s, she was a member of the Order of the Golden Dawn for a while, was a member of the Society of Psychical Research, became heavily involved in liberal politics, supporting suffrage for women and Home Rule for Ireland. The list of causes and societies that Constance was involved in was as long as my arm.  In fact, this is the portion of the book that drags a bit along with the list of surrogate mothers that Constance sought out since her own was so lacking.

I found the sections dealing with Constance as a mother to be far more interesting. While her eldest son Cyril was much loved from the start, it wasn’t until Vvyan was older, that he became interesting to his mother and they forged a strong bond.  As a child, Vvyan was constantly being shuffled off to friends and a relative because Constance felt that he was sickly and needed to be out of London. By all accounts, Constance and Oscar were loving and devoted parents who actually spend time playing with their children, as opposed to just seeing them for an hour in the morning or before bedtime. Of course they had nannies and governesses like most Victorian children, but Constance was very involved in her children’s lives, finding the right schools and governesses for them. Later on when Vvyan wasn’t happy at the school he and Cyril were attending in Germany, Constance found another school in Monaco that he liked much more.

Constance comes across as an extremely likeable and level-headed woman on the one hand, despite suffering from ill-health; she never let it keep her down.  Her one blind spot seems to have been her husband.  She was devoted to him and adored him utterly. It never seems to have occurred to her until it was too late that her husband’s friendships with young men like Lord Alfred Douglas were more than that. It’s unclear whether she was just ignoring the obvious or was ignorant as a lot of women were to the idea that there were men who liked men. The hardest and saddest part of the book is the last third which deals with Oscar’s relationship, and his neglect of Constance and their children. Bosie seems to have brought out all of Oscar’s worst qualities, his selfishness and narcissism which had been tempered and balanced by Constance.  Although he’d had relationships with other men, starting with his seduction by Robbie Ross, it was his relationship with Bosie that tipped the scales and made him reckless.

Although I still adore Oscar Wilde, I find it hard to forgive the pain and suffering that he put not only Constance and his children through but also his mother, by his reckless pursuit of a libel suit against the Marquess of Queensbury (Bosie’s father).  How he ever thought that he was going to win is beyond me.  He’d already been blackmailed by several rent boys over his relationships with them. He also spent wildly buying expensive cigarette cases, and taking them out to dinner at the Café Royal, taking suites at the Savoy and the Cadogan Hotel. It was one hell of a mid-life crisis, particularly when you consider that he had not one, but two, successful West End plays  running, An Ideal Husband (how ironic) and The Importance of Being Earnest. I can’t fault Constance for the actions that she took when she realized that Oscar was going to not only lose the libel case but also would be arrested for gross indecency.  Not only did she change the family name to Holland, but she also moved herself and the boys abroad to escape the scandal. Although it seems harsh, I can understand why she felt the need to keep the boys from Oscar while he was still involved with Bosie.

It’s sad that in the end, Constance and Wilde were never able to reconcile their differences truly, and that she died so tragically young, after an operation to improve her back problems.

Verdict:  Thanks to Franny Moyle’s biography, Constance Wilde steps out of Oscar’s shadow and into the spotlight. Well worth the read to get the other side of the story.  Moyle manages to keep Wilde from taking over the book, allowing Constance through her letters to shine.

 

Meet the Author

Franny Moyle has a degree in English and History of Art from St John's College, Cambridge, and is the author of Desperate Romantics. She was a leading arts producer at the BBC, which culminated in her becoming the corporation's first Commissioner for Arts and Culture, and is now a freelance writer in London.