England's Mistress
The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton
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Narrated by:
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Josephine Bailey
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By:
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Kate Williams
About this listen
Emma set out to make herself a star, and she succeeded beyond her wildest dreams. By her early 20s, she was the most painted woman of her day. Her "Attitudes" — classical postures in diaphanous outfits — thrilled aristocrats and intellectuals, while her innovations in fashion and dress changed the way women looked forever. Shrewdly manipulating the media's fascination with her, Emma made herself into the most famous woman in England, desired by every man she met, adored by thousands, and, for a time, very rich. Yet, she was willing to throw it all away for the man she loved.
Drawing on hundreds of previously undiscovered letters, England's Mistress, told with a novelist's flair, follows Emma's dramatic journey from the slums to the Royal Court of Naples, and from the brothels of St. James' to the tragedy and glory of the Napoleonic wars. Muse and mother, wife and mistress, celebrity and villain, victim and survivor: Emma Hamilton was one of the most remarkable women in British history.
©2006 Kate Williams (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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- By Galina M. on 11-14-16
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The Glitter and the Gold
- The American Duchess - In Her Own Words
- By: Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo
- Length: 9 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Consuelo Vanderbilt was young, beautiful and the heir to a vast family fortune. She was also deeply in love with an American suitor when her mother chose instead for her to fulfill her social ambitions and marry an English Duke. Leaving her life in America, she came to England as the Duchess of Marlborough in 1895 and took up residence in her new home: Blenheim Palace. The ninth Duchess gives unique first-hand insight into life at the very pinnacle of English society in the Edwardian era.
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Facinating Story- Terrible reading
- By Ashley D on 03-27-14
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Victoria: The Queen
- An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire
- By: Julia Baird
- Narrated by: Lucy Rayner
- Length: 21 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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When Victoria was born, in 1819, the world was a very different place. Revolution would threaten many of Europe’s monarchies in the coming decades. In Britain, a generation of royals had indulged their whims at the public’s expense, and republican sentiment was growing. The Industrial Revolution was transforming the landscape, and the British Empire was commanding ever larger tracts of the globe. In a world where women were often powerless, during a century roiling with change, Victoria went on to rule the most powerful country on earth with a decisive hand.
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Masterpiece!!
- By DKSTRYKER on 01-07-24
By: Julia Baird
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Those Wild Wyndhams
- Three Sisters at the Heart of Power
- By: Claudia Renton
- Narrated by: Claudia Renton
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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They were confidantes to British prime ministers, poets, writers, and artists, their lives entwined with the most celebrated and scandalous figures of the day, from Oscar Wilde to Henry James. They were the lovers of great men - or men of great prominence... They lived in a world of luxurious excess, a world of splendor at 44 Belgrave Square and later at the even more vast Clouds, the exquisite Wiltshire house on 4,000 acres, the "house of the age", designed in 1876 by the visionary architect Philip Webb - the model for Henry James' The Spoils of Poynton.
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SLOW START BUT STICK WITH THIS ONE
- By The Louligan on 01-22-19
By: Claudia Renton
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Effie
- The Passionate Lives of Effie Gray, John Ruskin and John Everett Millais
- By: Suzanne Fagence Cooper
- Narrated by: Sophie Ward
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Effie Gray, a beautiful and intelligent young socialite, rattled the foundations of England's Victorian age. Married at 19 to John Ruskin, the leading art critic of the time, she found herself trapped in a loveless, union after Ruskin rejected her on their wedding night. She met John Everett Millais, Ruskin's protege, and fell passionately in love with him. Suzanne Fagence Cooper has gained exclusive access to Effie's previously unseen letters and diaries to tell the complete story of this scandalous love triangle.
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Fascinating Story--Victoriana
- By Cariola on 06-29-12
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Queen Victoria's Mysterious Daughter
- A Biography of Princess Louise
- By: Lucinda Hawksley
- Narrated by: Jennifer M. Dixon
- Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The secrets of Queen Victoria's sixth child, Princess Louise, may be destined to remain hidden forever. What was so dangerous about this artistic, tempestuous royal that her life has been documented more by rumor and gossip than hard facts? When Lucinda Hawksley started to investigate, often thwarted by inexplicable secrecy, she discovered a fascinating woman, modern before her time, whose story has been shielded for years from public view.
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Incredibly Frustrating
- By JayOne on 01-16-20
By: Lucinda Hawksley
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To Marry an English Lord
- By: Gail MacColl, Carol McD. Wallace
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 9 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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From the Gilded Age until 1914, more than 100 American heiresses invaded Britannia and swapped dollars for titles - just like Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham, the first of the Downton Abbey characters Julian Fellowes was inspired to create after reading To Marry An English Lord. Filled with vivid personalities, gossipy anecdotes, grand houses, and a wealth of period details-plus quotes and the finer points of Victorian and Edwardian etiquette - To Marry An English Lord is social history at its liveliest and most accessible.
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Not Great on Audio
- By Lynne on 03-10-16
By: Gail MacColl, and others
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We Two
- Victoria and Albert: Rulers, Partners, Rivals
- By: Gillian Gill
- Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor
- Length: 18 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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It was the most influential marriage of the 19th Century - and one of history’s most enduring love stories. Traditional biographies tell us that Queen Victoria inherited the throne as a naïve teenager, when the British Empire was at the height of its power, and seemed doomed to find failure as a monarch and misery as a woman until she married her German cousin Albert and accepted him as her lord and master. Now renowned chronicler Gillian Gill turns this familiar story on its head, revealing a strong, feisty queen, and a brilliant, fragile prince working together to build a family.
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I found it extremely moving.
- By Cheryl on 08-07-09
By: Gillian Gill
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Behind the Throne
- A Domestic History of the British Royal Household
- By: Adrian Tinniswood
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 14 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In Behind the Throne, historian Adrian Tinniswood uncovers the reality of five centuries of life at the English court, taking the listener on a remarkable journey from one Queen Elizabeth to another and exploring life as it was lived by clerks and courtiers and clowns and crowned heads: the power struggles and petty rivalries, the tension between duty and desire, the practicalities of cooking dinner for thousands and of ensuring the king always won when he played a game of tennis.
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Very Worthwhile
- By G. Cole on 12-13-18
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Louisa
- The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams
- By: Louisa Thomas
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Born in London to an American father and a British mother on the eve of the Revolutionary War, Louisa Catherine Johnson was raised in circumstances very different from the New England upbringing of future president John Quincy Adams, whose life had been dedicated to public service from the earliest age. And yet John Quincy fell in love with her almost despite himself. Their often tempestuous but deeply close marriage lasted half a century.
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Insightful
- By Jean on 05-18-16
By: Louisa Thomas
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Fortune's Children
- The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt
- By: Arthur T. Vanderbilt II
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 18 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Written by descendant Arthur T. Vanderbilt II, Fortune's Children traces the dramatic and amazingly colorful history of this great American family, from the rise of industrialist and philanthropist Cornelius Vanderbilt to the fall of his progeny - wild spendthrifts whose profligacy bankrupted a vast inheritance.
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The Rise and Fall of the Gilded Age
- By Hilary on 10-22-14
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Wallis in Love
- The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy
- By: Andrew Morton
- Narrated by: Molly Parker Myers
- Length: 12 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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For fans of the Netflix series The Crown and from the author of the New York Times best seller 17 Carnations comes a captivating biography of Wallis Simpson, the notorious woman for whom Edward VIII gave up the throne.
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This one is being returned
- By Rita T on 02-15-18
By: Andrew Morton
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What listeners say about England's Mistress
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Samantha Eggler
- 05-18-07
Good Entertainment
I find the author fills in details that are probably assumed. Yet overall it's entertaining to look back in time at this famous women. Emma is an intertesting character who climbed the social ladder. She was one brave lady.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Christopher D. Arrigo
- 05-22-24
Highly enjoyable and stylish
Well researched, and beautifully written. Great intro to the period of late Georgian history and the napoleonic wars.
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Overall
- Robbin Coran
- 11-26-07
Documentary Biography
The description of this book gives the reader the impression that you will be listening to a novel when, in fact, you are read a documentary biography about the life of Emma Hamilton. The book is written as a collection of facts with suppositions and the supporting reasoning. I enjoyed learning about this lady but I felt like I was listening to the Discovery Channel. At times, the author was confusing in the manner in which details were related because the reference to time was left out and it was often not clear as to whom the author was talking about. Anyway, the book is not a complete waste of money but you should know it is definitely not a novel and isn't narrated like one either.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Eunice
- 07-25-08
Glad I live now...not then!
This was an extremely interesting book in many ways. The story of Emma herself is captivating, but as her tale unwinds you are given a vivid picture of life in her era. I'm so glad to live now and not then! Things were really tough if you were born into the wrong social strata. The descriptions of clothing and hair fashion were also intriguing. Overall, a well-read interesting listen.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Linda
- 03-06-19
A story of celebrity
Ms Williams gives a lot of details that help understand the way people lived in the 18th century and what was going on in England at the time America was beginning. Some people may think there’s too much detail, but it’s necessary to understand the times. People were just as fascinated by celebrities as they are today. There were no photographs but they used cartoons and paintings in the same way.
I bought this because I enjoyed Becoming Victoria and I was not disappointed.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Cariola
- 01-31-08
Really enjoyed this one
I didn't know much about Lady Emma Hamilton, but I found her life quite fascinating. She must have been quite a woman to have worked her way up the social ladder as she did.
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2 people found this helpful
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- CarlnMichaelaConrad
- 12-06-22
Wow
What an incredible story of a women who conquered a man’s world, only to have it taken away from her in the end. We’ll written and a great listen!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- Jennifer
- 11-07-08
don't listen this while driving
If not for the somewhat interesting content of the book, one might easily fall asleep while listening to it. The narrator's voice is one more suitable for bedtime stories or lullabies. Definitely not for long distance driving, which was my reason for buying it before a 1200-mile driving trip. It nows keeps me good company while knitting though.
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- Jeanne Ledwell
- 05-10-23
wonderful book THE book for Emma Hamilton fans
Loved it very intimate portrait learned a great deal I'm so sorry I'm done! Good narration and terrific scholarship...
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Overall
- jojonow
- 06-12-08
Riveting.
The rags to riches and back again story of Emma Hamilton, the "rock star" of her times, is not only epic, but also illustrative the plight of poor young women of the day. Without her legendary beauty, Emma wouldn't have stood a chance of digging her way out of poverty. In fact, readers learn early on that Emma's early education and opportunity, such as it was, came as a result of her mother's liaison with one of her "betters."
Equally compelling is the look into the character of Lord Nelson,whose own meteoric rise and outsized ego were remarkable. All the characters are well drawn, the times vividly portrayed. A fabulous read.
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6 people found this helpful