Fai clic su di un'immagine per andare a Google Ricerca Libri.
Sto caricando le informazioni... The Rise and Fall of the House of Windsordi A. N. Wilson
Nessuno Sto caricando le informazioni...
Iscriviti per consentire a LibraryThing di scoprire se ti piacerà questo libro. Attualmente non vi sono conversazioni su questo libro. History, Biography, Royal Family, England ( ) A. N. Wilson likes the British Royal Family, as an institution. He also likes—no, make that “adores”—Queen Elizabeth II. The monarchy, he argues, is the cultural equivalent of ballast in a ship’s hold: it does its job best by remaining stolidly in place, acting as a stabilizing force, and causes serious problems when it moves about. The stolid, beige presence of the current Queen is, for Wilson, exactly what the monarchy requires. Lurching backward and forward through time, Wilson judges the other members of the House of Windsor against her high standard, and (not surprisingly) finds them wanting. Queen Victoria is borderline-psychotic, Edward VII a libertine, George V puritanical, Edward VIII (who abdicated in order to marry the love of his life) selfish, and Elizabeth the Queen Mother a self-righteous phony. The Queen’s own father (George VI) and sister (Princess Margaret) emerge relatively unscathed, but her husband (Prince Phillip) comes off as a befuddled clod and her eldest son (Prince Charles) as equally dull-witted . . . though more dangerous because he thinks of himself as clever. Princess Diana—whether breathtakingly naïve or coldly calculating—commits the unforgiveable sin of being vivid, and calling public attention to herself as a person. All of this—the ruminations on the role of the monarchy in modern Britain, and the hatchet-job portraits—is couched in language that drips with icy disdain for such cultural travesties as marrying for love, attending schools other than Eton, drawing satirical newspaper cartoons about the Queen, and revising the Book of Common Prayer. The cultural-conservative savagery of the book (Wilson gets the vapors when the Church of England calls itself the “Anglican Church”) makes it read like an Oxford-accented version of American right-wing talk radio. It offers watching-a-train-wreck entertainment value, but little in the way of real enlightenment. nessuna recensione | aggiungi una recensione
"Before you say it could never happen, read A. N. Wilson's spectacular account of privilege and profligacy, a riches-to-ruin saga as bizarre as any novel. 1992 was the year the roof fell in on the storybook existence of the British royal family, the Windsors, and Queen Elizabeth referred to it as the "annus horribilis." The British press could barely keep up with the succession of separations, divorces, and sex scandals that undermined popular support of the monarchy and may yet redefine its role in the political and social life of Great Britain." "Readers with an interest in history (and perhaps a taste for the gothic) will be fascinated by Wilson's tracing of the present misery of the Windsors to the quarrels and eccentricities of elder generations, and perhaps to an even more ancient family curse, pronounced by a disappointed heir to the fortune. The author shows us how the constitutional crisis of Charles and Diana's impending divorce - de facto or official - is rooted in the bitter family struggle over the personal life of Edward VIII, who chose to marry a divorced American woman, and was forced to abdicate in 1936." "From the glittering history of the Windsors to the tabloid exploits of the Duchess of York, and from Prince Charles's steamy telephone tapes to the ecclesiastical and political fallout of a royal divorce, A. N. Wilson fashions a dramatic narrative out of the strands of this all-too-human catastrophe. Can the Windsor dynasty survive? Or is there a new English revolution in the making?"--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved Non sono state trovate descrizioni di biblioteche |
Discussioni correntiNessunoCopertine popolari
Google Books — Sto caricando le informazioni... GeneriSistema Decimale Melvil (DDC)941.085History and Geography Europe British Isles Historical periods of British Isles 1837- Period of Victoria and House of Windsor 1945-1999Classificazione LCVotoMedia:
Sei tu?Diventa un autore di LibraryThing. |