A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby - Softcover

Lovell, Mary S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1857024699 ISBN 13: 9781857024692

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2003

Synopsis

The biography of Jane Digby, an ‘enthralling tale of a nineteenth-century beauty whose heart – and hormones – ruled her head.’ Harpers and Queen

A celebrated aristocratic beauty, Jane Digby married Lord Ellenborough at seventeen. Their divorce a few years later was one of England s most scandalous at that time. In her quest for passionate fulfilment she had lovers which included an Austrian prince, King Ludvig I of Bavaria, and a Greek count whose infidelities drove her to the Orient. In Syria, she found the love of her life, a Bedouin nobleman, Sheikh Medjuel el Mezrab who was twenty years her junior.

Bestselling biographer Mary Lovell has produced from Jane Digby’s diaries not only a sympathetic and dramatic portrait of a rare woman, but a fascinating glimpse into the centuries-old Bedouin tradition that is now almost lost.

About this title

About the Author:

Mary Lovell is the author of the bestselling biographies of Beryl Markham, ‘Straight on Til Morning’, and of Amelia Earhart, ‘The Sound of Wings’. She is currently engaged on a dual biography of Richard and Isabel Burton.

From Publishers Weekly:

When she was 21, Digby (1807-1881), a beautiful English aristocrat, shocked London society by leaving her husband and young son to pursue an Austrian diplomat with whom she was having a love affair. Digby's subsequent divorce was literally front-page news as the London Times "cleared its traditional front page of classified advertisements to carry [the] sensational news story" in the form of "a verbatim report of the... divorce hearing in Parliament." The divorce then led to self-imposed exile on the continent, where she had many lovers (including Ludwig I of Bavaria), married two more times and bore five children, although she never lived with or formed lasting bonds with her surviving offspring. Drawing on primary research, including Digby's letters and diaries, Lovell (Straight On Till Morning) brings her unconventional subject to life in this outstanding portrait. At the age of 50, Digby embarked on her fourth and happiest marriage, to bandit Chief Sheikh Medjuel of Arabia and, adopting her husband's culture, spent part of each year with the bedouin nomads in the desert. Lovell provides vivid descriptions of tribal life as well as Digby's more lavish existence in Damascus, where she entertained Western tourists. So much for repressed Victorians. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1857024699
• ISBN 13: 9781857024692
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384