BLOOD ROYAL: An Intimate Portrait of the Kings of the House of Hanover

by Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 4, 1979

Sinclair-Stevenson (The Gordon Highlanders, etc.) offers this as an ""impressionistic essay"" and announces that he'll ""tell what I wish to tell, and damn the consequences""; all that said, the packaging of these dozen wee bits of historical gossip/chat as ""an intimate portrait"" of the First Four Georges still amounts to gross misrepresentation. George I is covered by a sketch of his coronation, an account of an early marital scandal back in Hanover, and a summary of the Jacobite rebellions (going well beyond George I's reign). George II: his strained relationship with his eldest son; a glance at the careers of Handel and John Gay; a record of the battle of Dettingen. George III: a listing of what happened to all of his many woeful children; notes on gambling and boxing (which relate more to George IV's time); a chronicle of George's awful illness. George IV: his tour of Scotland; Beau Brummel & Co.; the building of the Royal Pavilion at Brighton. Few connections are drawn, the kings remain faceless, and even the most casual readers of history will feel cheated of basic facts, backgrounds, or threads to follow. Small wonder Sinclair-Stevenson is so defensive: ""The study of architecture, or fashion, or gambling, or the relationships between different members of a family, of funerals and coronations, is not totally worthless."" No, not totally, but--in such bland, uncoordinated, pointless context--pretty well near.

Pub Date: Jan. 4, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1979

Categories: NONFICTION