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Born to Rule: Five Reigning Consorts, Granddaughters of Queen Victoria
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Product Description
Here are the stories of Alexandra, whose faith in Rasputin and tragic end have become the stuff of legend; Marie, the flamboyant and eccentric queen who battled her way through a life of intrigues and was also the mother of two Balkan queens and of the scandalous Carol II of Romania; Victoria Eugenie, Spain’s very English queen who, like Alexandra, introduced hemophilia into her husband’s family---with devastating consequences for her marriage; Maud, King Edward VII’s daughter, who was independent Norway’s reluctant queen; and Sophie, Kaiser Wilhelm II’s much maligned sister, daughter of an emperor and herself the mother of no less than three kings and a queen, who ended her days in bitter exile.
Using never before published letters, memoirs, diplomatic documents, secondary sources, and interviews with descendents of the subjects, Julia Gelardi’s Born to Rule is an astonishing and memorable work of popular history.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #271611 in Books
- Published on: 2006-02-07
- Released on: 2006-02-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Paperback
- 496 pages
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This lively page-turner covers the 100-year period between the birth of Queen Maud of Norway in 1869 and the death of Queen Victoria Eugenie of Spain in 1969. Suffering only from the inevitable repetition and melodramatic foreshadowing caused by the five-in-one setup of this biography, Gelardi's book features liberal quotations from fascinating correspondence and diaries that reveal both the intimate and the public faces of the women featured. Tales of the girls' romances and weddings spice up the early pages, followed by descriptions of marital relationships, childbirths and the early seeds of conflict-both personal and political. World War I and the Bolshevik revolution dominate the third part of the book, after which Gelardi describes the poignant twilight years of the four granddaughters who lived past the end of the Great War. Lurking behind these stories is the legacy of Queen Victoria, the cruelty of Kaiser Wilhelm in Germany and the specter of hemophilia. It is Marie, "Missy," who plays the favorite in the book, just as she did as Queen of Romania. More than the others, she inherited her grandmother's will, charisma, generosity and political acumen, along with the ability to adapt to changing times and circumstances. The granddaughters were "raised in an era where responsibility, commitment, sacrifice and duty before self were elevated as the highest ideals and embodied admirably by their grandmother," but the era that encompassed their rule would see the decline in monarchy throughout Europe as citizens of various countries came to believe that it was not the divine will of God that appointed their leaders, but the will-wise or foolish-of the people.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
“Engaging and lively...highly recommended.” ---Library Journal
“Solemn, sometimes frisky, but always captivating.” ---Kirkus Reviews
“A diligent researcher who gets her facts straight and documents them properly with footnotes...Born to Rule has much interest in it and can serve as an introduction to these four queens and an empress.” ---The Washington Times
About the Author
Julia Gelardi was born in Manila, Phillipines, and educated in the United States and Canada. An independent historian and author, she lives with her husband and two daughters in Plymouth, Minnesota.
Customer Reviews
Born to Rule, Five Reigning Consorts...........
I learned alot of new facts about the Spanish,Greek and Romamian monarchies. Alot of repeat facts on Nicholas and Alexandra.
Five Stars
A very good biography on five granddaughters of Queen Victoria who became queens. One of course the well known Alexandra of Russia, the others Maud of Norway, Sophie of Greece, Ena of Spain and Marie of Romania. Its the latter four queens that I bought this book. I knew very little about any of them. Each of them were very interesting in their own rights and events in their lives the author goes in great detail about each one of them from childhood to death. A wonderful read.
Well-researched, poorly written
While her sources are impeccable, Gerlardi would have benefited from some serious editing. At times, this reads like a poorly written high school history report-choppy sentences, vague pronouns, and incomplete, abruptly transitioning paragraphs. There is a disconnect between the granddaughters' stories as she has written them, and I agree with other reviewers that a different format-a section for each, with timelines or other graphics to show their overlapping lives-would have been a much better way to tell their stories. I read this immediately after reading FOUR QUEENS by Nancy Goldstone. That book, which has its flaws, is superior to BORN TO RULE.
