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A review by starsal
England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton by Kate Williams
3.0
This was a wonderful book to read when one is on a bus for eight hours. It's absorbing, interesting, and at least nominally "nonfiction," so you feel like you're maybe learning something.
I kept running into references to Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson's relationships in fiction and started looking for a good book to read on the subject. This book both was and was not the book I was looking for.
On its strong side, it's clear that Williams put a ton of research into this book. She traipsed all across Europe and pursued mountains of primary source material. She is also clearly a very curious, clever woman, with a lot of imagination and the ability to expand upon scant information. This is a valuable asset in a researcher, as long as it is balanced by a healthy respect for the facts, and a consciousness that while we can speculate and extrapolate from facts, we can't know anything that isn't supported by facts.
At times in this book, Williams commits the academic sin of letting her imagination run away with her. Depending on what you were looking for in a book, this could be either good or bad. If you were looking for a ripping read, this is wonderful. She comes up with very colorful, exciting hypotheses that at least started based in fact. However, if you are reading this for historical edification, these flights of fancy get in the way. Yes, it's possible that Emma's grandfather died of alcohol overdose or was killed by Emma's grandmother, but it's also just as likely he died in an accident or of an illness that just wasn't documented at the time. Yes, it's possible that Emma protested, fussed, and didn't have a physical relationship with Nelson until her husband subtly gave her the go-ahead, but it seems a tad more likely that (as her husband was getting on in years) she just dove in for the glory of being Admiral Lord Nelson's lover.
Williams commits the other sin biographers are prone to, that of falling in love with her subject. Emma Hamilton, who began life as Amy Lyons and hoped to end it as Emma, Lady Nelson, is a very dynamic woman. She was clearly beautiful and charismatic. She stirred pots all over Europe, and interacted with some of the best people. However, Williams glosses over some of the less-savory facts about Emma. She consistently downplays Emma's emotional insecurities and neediness. (From other sources, I know that Emma was rather famous for the kind of cattiness that includes telling your friends a party isn't much to dress for and then showing up yourself in a cloth-of-gold dress with a diamond tiara).
Williams also makes much of Emma's love for both William Hamilton and Horatio Nelson. I am sure that Emma loved both of these men. However, Williams skates right over the fact that Emma reinvented herself--her morals, clothes, hobbies, and manner of speech--for each of the men in her life. She went from being a party girl for the first man to take her in, to a reformed woman for Greville, to the perfect ambassador's wife for Hamilton, to the perfect lover and PR manager for Nelson. What is never really clear is what Emma wanted for Emma. The answer may just be that she wanted to be rich, famous, envied, and adored, but it wasn't explored to my satisfaction.
This was a very enjoyable book if you take it with a lot of salt, much like a margarita, and don't let some of the more egregious logical leaps offend you. It was the perfect weekend vacation read, and I would recommend it to anyone curious about the period. Not as a resource, but more of an introduction.
I kept running into references to Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson's relationships in fiction and started looking for a good book to read on the subject. This book both was and was not the book I was looking for.
On its strong side, it's clear that Williams put a ton of research into this book. She traipsed all across Europe and pursued mountains of primary source material. She is also clearly a very curious, clever woman, with a lot of imagination and the ability to expand upon scant information. This is a valuable asset in a researcher, as long as it is balanced by a healthy respect for the facts, and a consciousness that while we can speculate and extrapolate from facts, we can't know anything that isn't supported by facts.
At times in this book, Williams commits the academic sin of letting her imagination run away with her. Depending on what you were looking for in a book, this could be either good or bad. If you were looking for a ripping read, this is wonderful. She comes up with very colorful, exciting hypotheses that at least started based in fact. However, if you are reading this for historical edification, these flights of fancy get in the way. Yes, it's possible that Emma's grandfather died of alcohol overdose or was killed by Emma's grandmother, but it's also just as likely he died in an accident or of an illness that just wasn't documented at the time. Yes, it's possible that Emma protested, fussed, and didn't have a physical relationship with Nelson until her husband subtly gave her the go-ahead, but it seems a tad more likely that (as her husband was getting on in years) she just dove in for the glory of being Admiral Lord Nelson's lover.
Williams commits the other sin biographers are prone to, that of falling in love with her subject. Emma Hamilton, who began life as Amy Lyons and hoped to end it as Emma, Lady Nelson, is a very dynamic woman. She was clearly beautiful and charismatic. She stirred pots all over Europe, and interacted with some of the best people. However, Williams glosses over some of the less-savory facts about Emma. She consistently downplays Emma's emotional insecurities and neediness. (From other sources, I know that Emma was rather famous for the kind of cattiness that includes telling your friends a party isn't much to dress for and then showing up yourself in a cloth-of-gold dress with a diamond tiara).
Williams also makes much of Emma's love for both William Hamilton and Horatio Nelson. I am sure that Emma loved both of these men. However, Williams skates right over the fact that Emma reinvented herself--her morals, clothes, hobbies, and manner of speech--for each of the men in her life. She went from being a party girl for the first man to take her in, to a reformed woman for Greville, to the perfect ambassador's wife for Hamilton, to the perfect lover and PR manager for Nelson. What is never really clear is what Emma wanted for Emma. The answer may just be that she wanted to be rich, famous, envied, and adored, but it wasn't explored to my satisfaction.
This was a very enjoyable book if you take it with a lot of salt, much like a margarita, and don't let some of the more egregious logical leaps offend you. It was the perfect weekend vacation read, and I would recommend it to anyone curious about the period. Not as a resource, but more of an introduction.