Lady Sackville: A Biography
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- Synopsis
- [from inside flaps] ""Quel roman est ma vie!" was one of Lady Victoria Sackville's frequent exclamations. The accuracy of the phrase--had she been able to see her life story written out as it is in this charming and delightful biography--would have pleased her and doubtless prompted the observation yet again, "My life is just like a novel!" And few upper-class young Englishwomen have ever had more reason to say so. Born in 1862, she was the illegitimate daughter of Pépita, the Spanish dancer, and Lionel Sackville-West, the distinguished British diplomat. Part of the fascination of her story is how that irregular birth affected her life and how she learned to triumph over its liabilities and skillfully manipulate its assets to her advantage. "It was," as Nigel Nicolson (Victoria's grandson) says, "an astonishing life." Her father was named British Minister to the United States, and as his hostess Victoria became the most popular girl in the American capital. As wife of her cousin, also named Lionel Sackville-West, she became mistress of Knole, one of the largest of the stately homes of England. As a high-living adventuress, she was the object of two bizarre lawsuits, one of them to prove her illegitimacy--ironically thereby preserving Knole and the Sackville title for her husband. She enchanted the major artistic and political figures of her time, and her story will fascinate readers today as her personality fascinated, and sometimes shocked, her own generation. This biography completes a trilogy, begun by Vita Sackville-West's Pépita (the life of her grandmother, the Spanish dancer) and continued by Portrait of a Marriage, in which Nigel Nicolson re-created the story of his parents, Vita and Harold Nicolson. Lady Sackville bridges the space between those two books, one by her daughter, the other by her grandson, to complete the picture of three generations of an ancient, noble, and gifted family. Susan Mary Alsop's previous book was To Marietta from Paris. Mrs. Alsop lives in Washington D.C."
- Copyright:
- 1978
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Excellent
- Book Size:
- 311 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780385113793
- Publisher:
- Doubleday Company, Inc.
- Date of Addition:
- 10/16/17
- Copyrighted By:
- Susan Mary Alsop
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Nonfiction, Biographies and Memoirs
- Submitted By:
- Evan Reese
- Proofread By:
- Sharon Monthei
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.