Lord Curzon

Dazzling, dedicated, some would say cast in an heroic mould, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, Viceroy of India, was the last of the great British Moghuls. British imperialism was to reach its high noon with Curzon's viceroyalty. But it was also Curzon who was responsible for the partitioning of Bengal, an act which was to fuel widespread resentment and foreshadow the Raj's demise. At thirty-nine, Curzon was the youngest Viceroy to be sent out to India. Yet, seven years later, he was to return home a broken man, his viceroyalty in a shambles, only to be later dispossessed of the Prime Ministership he thought rightfully his. Was this the result of some fatal flaw in Curzon's personality? Curzon has certainly led his earlier biographers to think so, leaving copious writings suggesting that he was brought up by an indifferent mother, a cold father and a savage governess. But new evidence sheds a different light on a more complex personality. Nayana Goradia is the first of Curzon's biographers to examine the effects on Curzon of being continually feted throughout his childhood, firstly by an adoring mother, and later by his male teachers and fellow pupils and students. Though he rose to every challenge, what bordered on narcissism was to tragically pursue him throughout adulthood - in his first marriage to Mary, the first American-born vicereine, and most particularly in the struggle for power with Lord Kitchener, in his eight-year affair with Elinor Glyn, and in his hopes of becoming Prime Minister. The author shows that there is also evidence of sado-masochistic tendencies. Lord Kitchener was to say of Curzon, 'There is only one thing that Curzon likes more than hurting others, [and that is] to persuade others to humiliate him.'.

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.