Title of Book: The Duchess
Genre: Historical Fiction
Author: Amanda Foreman
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Copyright Date: 1998
Number of pages: 371 (not including epilogue or index)
Settings: England in the 1700’s

Main characters and brief description:
Georgiana Spencer- Duchess of Devonshire, very well respected by everyone around her. Her fashion sense inspired many of those living in the same time period, and her political status gave inspiration to women not only in this time period but for the future ones as well. At the beginning of the book she is kind of this tomboyish girl who does what ever she wants but as the book goes on she learns to become more of a respected lady, carrying herself kind of like royalty.

The Duke of Devonshire- Previously known as William of Orange, he was a very quiet man. Not many people knew what he was really thinking, his emotions were extremely well hidden so many misunderstood him. During marriage to Georgiana, he had several mistresses visit him. Besides mistresses, the Duke had plenty of other well kept secrets that he refuses to tell the people in his life, especially Georgiana.

Lady Bess Foster- A very close friend of Georgiana and even closer to the Duke- the two of them end up having an affair. Bess’s husband would beat her and he had forbidden her of seeing her sons, she was an outcast in her own family and she did nothing to deserve it. The Duke and Duchess were where she found refuge.

Charles Grey- Friend (maybe a little bit more of a friend) of Georgiana’s before her marriage. Is very involved in the Whig political party and as that starts developing, him and Georgiana start to see each other more often and eventually get caught in an affair. Afterwords they go their separate ways and he continues working on his politics and builds a name for himself.

Summary:
This book takes place in the late 1700s, in England. During this specific time period women’s rights became more prominent. Georgiana is the main character, throughout the book she has to adjust to the lifestyle of a Duchess. She is forced into an arranged marriage to become the duchess and all her husband wants is a male heir. She keeps having girls and the duke keeps getting mad at her and so she doesn’t know what to do anymore. She turns to politics, she really gets involved in them and starts to bring more attention to women’s rights. Political status takes a tole on her and she turns to gambling, drinking and even a having an affair to hide her pain that she’s going through with not meeting her husbands exceptions. Eventually Georgiana meets a friend by the name of Lady Bess and she helps Georgiana through her problems until Georgiana discovers the truth about Bess- she is having an affair with the Duke. During this time Georgiana gives birth to a boy, a son for the Duke. So now that she has done her job, she needs some time to clear her head, so she goes away and picks up politics again. There she runs into an old friend, named Charles Grey. The two of them hit it off, a little too well in fact. Georgiana finds herself in an affair with Mr. Grey and has to try to sort things out with everyone. She decides to stay with her husband and let Mr. Grey focus on her politics. Georgiana discovers that she is pregnant with Mr. Grey’s child, it is kept a secret and when the baby girl was born she gets sent off to the Grey family, and still remains somewhat of a secret. As the story continues and things start going back to normal, Bess stays and lives with the Duke and Duchess and their lives all kind of quietly continue.

Point of View:
The book seemed to be in third person, but there were times that it would use letters that Georgiana wrote to her children as a part of the story so those would be first person.
Since the book is told in third person, there’s less opportunities for biases. It tells each persons part of the story equally so you can decide for yourself what you think should happen. When it has the little sections with Georgiana’s letters, its a little bit easier to be on her side of what was happening in the specific situations, rather than being open to everyones.

Most Important Event:
The most important event in this book is very simple, it’s when the Duke marries Georgiana. This is how the whole set up for the book really starts forming, Georgiana’s life was fine before marriage and afterwords it kind of ruined her. She starts focusing on politics and that affects everyone around her, getting the women more excited about being involved with the community. After this happens she just becomes a role model for everyone in pretty much anything she does.

Character Analysis:
I chose Lady Bess to further discover because she really holds the whole story together. She has all sorts of her own problems: her husband beats her, she can’t see her own sons, she ends up betraying her friend by having an affair yet somehow she manages to keep everyone together and she’s always there to fix everybody’s problems- even if she can’t fix her own. She seems to always be around, even if no one else is and she seems to know everything about what’s going on in life and how to deal with it. This kind of reminds me of my mom, however let me explain a little more. Lady Bess reminds me of my mom in how she deals with problems, but definitely not because of the specific problems she is facing. My mom is able to put all her problems aside and help me/my family deal with ours and she knows exactly the right way to do it too. She’s also always around if you just want to sit down and talk with her.
“Feeling hurt and rejected, Georgiana turned to the sympathetic and understanding Bess for comfort.” (pg. 101) I feel like I can come to my mom whenever I am hurt and rejected, just like Georgiana did with Bess.
“Georgiana’s talk of retiring from London convinced Bess that the Duke could no longer be kept ignorant of the true state of affairs.” (pg. 234) Bess has specific knowledge and she knows exactly when/ how much to share with other people. My mom also has a lot of knowledge and she does a really good job of distributing it at the right time/to the right people.

Time Period:
“Georgiana was only fourteen when people began to speculate on her choice of husband”
(pg 14) This quote really shows how the time period was different back then because people today do not get married at age 14, I don’t even think that’s legal! It just really shows that this was the norm back then, no one questioned it and they all encouraged it.

“Lady Spencer had mixed feelings about the female members of the Circle, but she loathed one woman in particular: Lady Melbourne.” (pg. 47) This quote is showing that women are just starting to be recognized as a part of the community- being allowed in groups that represent the country that they live in. It also shows that they aren’t quite fully respected though- they don’t have all equal rights and respect. People weren’t all treated equally back then and I think thats a hard concept for us to realize because equality is kind of a norm for us.

Effects on our world today:
If Georgiana hadn’t gotten involved in politics then the idea of women being in a position of leadership might have taken longer to develop and it might have even been displayed/ demonstrated differently.
Also Georgiana really showed everyone how women can be independent, we don’t have to rely on others (men) to get what we want- if we work hard we can get it for ourselves. If she wouldn’t have done this, and if other women didn’t demonstrate this either, then women wouldn’t have as many rights as men and we would still be relying on them way more than we would have to be.

Life Lessons:
The first life lesson I learned was that you can make a difference. If you really work hard on something and put your mind to it, then eventually you will be making a difference. Georgiana made a difference in a lot of ways throughout the book- she put the idea of women equality out there and she showed people what a great sense of fashion was. I can use this in my life by continuing to work hard at the things that I care about, so someday I can make a difference too.
The second life lesson that I took away from this book was don’t keep an extreme amount of secrets and know how to express your emotions, you have to be somewhat of an open book. The Duke kept so many secrets/ his true emotions from everyone around him and that resulted in him not being able to form good relationships with people. I can apply this in my life by letting people know about my blessings/ trials and showing them my emotions so they can help me through them, instead of just keeping them to myself and ending up with no friends.
The third and final life lesson I learned is that you need to have a best friend, or someone who you can talk to in times of trouble. Georgiana went through a lot of hard stuff and for a while she had no one to talk to, no one to help her get through it- but then Bess came along. Just having someone to be there right beside you helps an extreme amount. I can use this in my life by making sure I surround myself with good friends that I know I can rely on to help me through hard times, and to also be there for others- be beside them during their hard times.

Recommendation:
This was a great book to read, it really helped me get a grasp on what this time period would have been like. I especially like the way it is written, its a story about someone’s life- they really went through every detail and that made me feel like I was walking in her shoes during some parts.