Michael SadleirCritiques

This is both the most frustrating and the most entertaining type of history book. Sadleir writes for a small audience of educated people who already know the basic story and personalities of the biography he relates, and so his writing is filled with sly asides and oblique references to later incidents. Moreover, [book: The Strange Life of Lady Blessington] is written in a fanciful, personal and slightly patronizing style: Sadleir writes as though he knows Marguerite Blessington's inner thoughts, and writes long, entirely fictional accounts of early moments in her life.

Marguerite Blessington was born Margaret "Sally" Power to a fast-degenerating gentleman in Ireland. After an abusive first marriage at 15 and being Kept for a number of years, she married Lord Blessington and became famous for her salons and brief friendship with Lord Byron. I had never heard of her before reading this book.

Racy book for its time and now seems quaint. Still, an enjoyable story about someone who does not live her life fettered by convention although I am not sure why she doesn't. The story is very big on period detail and I'm sure it is accurate. I especially liked the humorous nickname for Joe Box - Chunks - which I thought sums up the Victorian sense of humour very well.½

reprint