• My thoughts on historical accuracy in novels
  • Review Index
  • About me

At Home With A Good Book and the Cat

~ Is the only place I want to be….

At Home With A Good Book and the Cat

Tag Archives: Maria Fitzherbert

The Glitter and the Gold by Michael Dyne

22 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by misfitandmom in Georgian England, Historical Fiction

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Maria Fitzherbert, Mary Anne Clarke

The Glitter and the Gold tells the story of George IV of England and his relationship with Maria Fitzherbert. I am not going into great details of the storyline, as a lot of it might be spoilerish for those not familiar with George’s history. When the reader first meets George he is still the Prince of Wales, and he’s had enough of his parsimonious parents and their rigid lifestyle, so when he’s nineteen and allowed to cut loose on the world – watch out. There’s some serious high living going on there, along with the immense debt that continued to pile up behind it. But then one day George (Prinney) meets the twice widowed and very Catholic Maria Fitzherbert and he determines to have her no matter the price. And since Maria won’t be a mistress that price is very high indeed.

No one quite knew how the rumor had started. It spread across the Channel and titillated Paris salons. It crossed the Alps and caused a raising of eyebrow in Roman palaces. The Pope knew of it. There was a buzzing of beretta. Had the heir to the throne of England married a Catholic?

This was a seriously fun read, and I am very sad to let these characters go. While this isn’t the greatest novel ever written, I thought the author did a good job with the characters he had, particularly with George – warts and all. I really appreciated the way the author managed to show us George’s ever-increasing waistline by showing instead of telling, as opposed to that lazy method I’ve seen a lot lately in Tudor novels (no beady eyes or gravy drooling down one’s chin to be found here). I have no idea how close this book sticks to known historical facts, but the few times I did go for additional reading I didn’t find anything different from what was portrayed in the book. Dyne even threw in a couple of references to his younger brother’s somewhat notorious relationship to Mary Anne Clarke (trivia: can you name her famous great-great-granddaughter?). I am curious to know if Caroline of Brunswick was really like that starting at age fourteen. Oh my.

All in all jolly good fun and I heartily recommend it. Just don’t take too long dithering about whether to pick up a copy or not. From looking around the book seller sites there aren’t that many copies to be had. I did find a brief bio on the author at the back of the book, it seems that Dyne primarily wrote plays and movie scripts, including The Right Honorable Gentlemen, which was nominated for a Tony award. The Glitter and the Gold was inspired by his love of Regency furniture. I was torn between a 3.5 or a four star rating, but I just had too much fun. 4/5 stars.

Share this:

  • Share
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Like this:

Like Loading...

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

.

Join 91 other followers

Blog Stats

  • 127,602 hits

Recent Posts

  • The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick
  • Minette by Melanie Clegg
  • Call Up The Morning by Clyde M. Brundy
  • The Last Renegade by Jo Goodman
  • Let No Man Divide by Elizabeth Kary

19C England 19C New York 2011 Historical Fiction Challenge Alexandre Dumas Amazon Vine California Chat Daphne Du Maurier Elizabeth Chadwick England England's Civil War 17C France French Revolution Historical Fiction Historical Romance Library loot Medieval Period My Reviews North America Restoration England Richard III Romantic Suspense Russia Scotland Tudor England US Civil War Wall Bangers Wars of the Roses World War I World War II

What's in my reader?

  • A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore
  • A Light On The Past: Elizabeth Chadwick
  • A Reader's Respite
  • Aneca's World
  • Bags, Books & Bon Jovi
  • Bippity Boppity Book
  • Dear Author
  • Earthshots
  • Flickr Scotland
  • Frances Hunter's American Heroes
  • Get Yer Bodices Ripped Here
  • Goodreads
  • Historical Fiction Notebook
  • Historical Fiction Online
  • Historical Tapestry
  • History Refreshed by Susan Higginbotham
  • Kill them all, God will know his own
  • Le Canapé
  • Let Them Read Books
  • Living the History
  • Outlandish Dreaming
  • Readin' and Dreamin'
  • Reading Extravaganza
  • Reading the Past
  • Royal Portraits
  • Scaling Mount TBR
  • Scandalous Women
  • Scotland In The Gloaming
  • Sharon Kay Penman
  • Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
  • Tanzanite's Castle of Books
  • Tanzanite's Book Covers
  • Tell Me a Story
  • The adventures of an intrepid reader
  • The Book Bloggers Shelf of Shame
  • The Lady Gwyn's Kingdom
  • The Lit Asylum
  • The Lost Fort
  • The Misadventures of Moppet
  • The Muse in the Fog Book Review
  • The Raucous Royals
  • The Romantic Armchair Traveller
  • The Tome Traveller
  • The Yorkist Age
May 2022
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031  
« Jun    

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • At Home With A Good Book and the Cat
    • Join 91 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • At Home With A Good Book and the Cat
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
    %d bloggers like this: