Aristocrats : Caroline, Emily, Louisa, and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832

Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox, 1740-1832 won the History Today Award, the Fawcett Prize and the Meilleur Livre Etranger and was made into a critically-acclaimed BBC/WGBH Masterpiece Theatre series in 1999. A fascinating insight into 18th century aristocratic life through the lives of the four Lennox sisters, the great grandchildren of Charles II, whose extraordinary lives spanned the period 1740-1832. Passionate, witty and moving, the voices of the Lennox sisters reach us with immediacy and power, drawing the reader into their remarkable lives, and making this one of the most enthralling historical naratives to appear for many years. The Lennox Sisters--great-granddaughters of a king, daughters of a cabinet minister, and wives of politicians and peers--lived lives of real public significance, but the private texture of their family-centered world mattered to them and they shared their experiences with each other in countless letters. From this hitherto unknown archive, Stella Tillyard has constructed a group biography of privileged eighteenth-century women who, she shows, have much to tell us about our own time.