Elizabeth
Charged with bigamy and faced with the prospect of living out her days in exile on the continent, this biography of 18th-century beauty and bigamist Elizabeth Chudleigh recounts how her courage and zest for life still allowed her to charm Catherine the Great and live in outrageous luxury. "When Elizabeth Chudleigh married the Duke of Kingston in 1769 it was the happiest and proudest moment of her life. She had put her childhood of impoverished gentility firmly behind her and reached the highest point of the social ladder. But her joy was short lived, and within a few years she would be standing in the dock in the House of Lords, charged with bigamy and facing the prospect of living out her days in exile on the continent." "Yet she was much more than the caricature villain her contemporaries made her out to be. In 1743 she had been appointed maid of honour to Augusta, Princess of Wales. Taking to court life like a duck to water, her beauty, wit, vitality and generosity soon ensured her a crowd of passionate admirers, and one year later she secretly married Augustus Hervey, a naval lieutenant, shortly before he left for two years in the West Indies." "Elizabeth carried on as 'Miss Chudleigh', the life and soul of court life and London society. When her marriage proved a failure, she began an affair and fell in love with the Duke of Kingston. Eventually Elizabeth denied in the ecclesiastical courts that she was married to Hervey and wed the Duke by special licence." "After the Duke's death, a witness to her marriage with Hervey was discovered. Bigamy fever swept London society and, in a very public trial, Elizabeth was found guilty of the crime. But her strength of character ensured that, even when her friends deserted her, her courage and zest for life did not. Elizabeth left Britain for Europe where, true to form, she continued her adventures, charmed Catherine the Great, and lived in outrageous luxury."--BOOK JACKET.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
Catalog signals suggest violence, death, or criminal harm. These notes may not be complete; consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
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Dark tone · Urgent pace
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
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Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
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A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-0994-2935-7
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL9272422M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
A comfortable full-length choice for steady daily reading.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
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