Perdita: The Literary, Theatrical, Scandalous Life of Mary Robinson

mary robinson lived her life on her on term ,when woman were told there was only one path to follow,wife and mother.

The late 18th Century is a fascinating period of contradiction. The circumspect lives of George III and his wife are at odds at the so-called crème de la crème of society, including the Prince of Wales. Mary Robinson's life story reveals the opulent lifestyles, decadence, and life of privilege of England's aristocracy and nobles. A great commentary on this period.

For those who enjoy the Regency period and life of George IV, this is one of the most perfect books to introduce you into the life of the period. It was a brief, intense and fascinating life which pushed the established mores to their limits. The Prince of Wales (lat to be George IV) became enamoured of Mary Robinson in her portrayal of Peridita in Shakespeare's, A Winter's Tale. She was a young actress, escaped from a bad marriage and strange father. She took to the stage for some income (as many women of the period did instead of taking up prostitution as such) The Prince of Wales became known as Florizel to Robinson's Perdita and she was his first 'major' mistress. Their lives intertwined for a brief period in his early adulthood - the beginning of what is known as the 'extended regency'. Robinson was then mistress to many of the influential peers of the time, and was even friends with Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire; At a time when Georgian morals were of questionable value (everything in private, nothing in public)- when profligacy, spending, appearance and general splendour were the order of the day - Mary Robinson orbited on at the perimetre of acceptability. An actress, an abadoned wife, a mistress, and more. I found this book overlong, but worth the effort to read. It is one of a series of books about women on the edge of society in this period, and has been great to build up a picture of life and living in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The author has gone to enormous efforts to track down information on Robinson, and it has paid off. There seems to be a good depth of research to back up the work. Overall a good read and well worth making the effort

I'll confess I would never have looked at this book if it hadn't been for the fact that I decided to read the 10 nominations for Richard and Judy's Best Read 2005.This book has been the biggest surprise of the lot,because, to be honest, I was not really looking forward to it. How wrong could I be ? This is a dazzling story of a fascinating woman. I am afraid to say the other biography in the Richard and Judy list,"Feel" by Chris Heath, which is all about pop singer Robbie Williams, comes off a very poor second when compared to this volume. Sadly of course there's no doubt which book will sell more.I wish all Robbie Williams fans, or indeed the fans of any of the over-hyped celebrities of today, would read this book and find out that maybe their hero's or heroine's exploits are not so special after all when compared to what the subject of this biography got up to. Mary Robinson, whose nickname was Perdita, was married at 15 and her marriage was something of a disaster and included spending some time in prison with her husband. She then made herself into one of London's most celebrated actresses and was a friend of the outstanding theatrical figures of the day.She became a leading figure in the glamorous high society of the city, reputedly being the most beautiful woman in Britain.She voluntarily gave up her theatrical career to become the mistress of the Prince of Wales, thus heightening her celebrity even further. Reading about this time of her life it appears that she was just as famous or infamous as any contemporary celebrity.Maybe more so.There are many obvious similarities. In the second half of the book the plot changes almost completely as Mary, after being ditched by her royal lover, re-invents herself as a writer. She is so successful in this enterprise that she becomes one of the leading lady literary figures of the era. She is primarily a poetess, but also writes plays, novels and political tracts and she becomes friendly with both leading political and cultural figures. It is an absolutely fascinating tale, made more moving perhaps by the fact that she was not lucky in love, suffered a debilitating illness for many years and finally died young at the age of 43. All this is retold in an easy and entertaining way by Paula Byrne and I would thoroughly recommend this book to anyone.