PRINCESS OF ORANGE

by Elisabeth Kyle ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 18, 1966

Like The Swedish Nightingdale: Jenny Lind (1964) and Girl With a Pen: Charlotte Bronte (1965) this is first a romance, and only secondarily a biography. In dealing with William and Mary in the years leading up to their joint accession to the English throne after the deposition of James II, the author has described much of the social detail which goes into an understanding of the historical period, and has explained the events which culminated in the Glorious Revolution. But mostly this book is about personality, Mary's personality primarily, and the fictionalized dialogue, the selectivity and arrangement of historical facts present her, if not with total accuracy, at least true to the idealized day dreams of teenage girls. The early scenes of her girlhood show her rising above the pettiness of her plump, phlegmatic sister Anne, and their calculating companion Sarah Jennings (later Churchill). She is beautiful, graceful, intelligent, capable in the arts, always perfectly at ease socially. She was dismayed at her arranged engagement to her brusque Dutch cousin William, but after their marriage found him honest, courageous, direct but sensitive. Their conjugal happiness, culminating in ""conjunctive sovereignty"" is strongly emphasized and overshadows the fact that Mary was caught in the center of family/political controversy. This is likely to be as popular as the earlier two books, and while it is clearly idealized it may well encourage girls to read further.

Pub Date: April 18, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Holt, Rinehart & Winston

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION