There may not be much wisdom to be gleaned from the lives of the spectacular, but we can marvel at their experiences, their triumphs and their failures, extracting from the ride a vicarious thrill of what it would be like to shape history. Lady Emma Hamilton was the most famous beauty of her time, a beauty born in poverty, a beauty that died in obscurity. Between her sunrise and sunset, she lived a life the likes to which few can relate.
In 1765, Emma Hamilton was born into the poverty characteristic of a commoner in 18th century England, destitution driven by not enough money and too many mouthes to feed. Consequently, Emma was obligated to follow in the footsteps of most girls from her cohort, finding placement as a maid in a wealthy home. Another girl in her situation might have been content with a roof over her head and food in her belly, but 12-year-old Emma burned for more. In time, she moved on to apprentice herself to various actresses, learning stagecraft while she served them. But with her opportunities for advancement in the legitimate world limited, she turned to the seedy underbelly of British society, a world whose eccentric practices were fuelled by the preoccupations and the vices of the idle rich. In this dark world of noble men behaving badly, she excelled, but not without the price paid by all women who allow themselves to be treated as a lush fruit to be handed round and tasted. Degraded but undeterred, Emma persisted until she captured the attention of a man rich enough to permanently deliver her from her ignoble birth. He would mistreat her, stringing out their engagement, refusing to commit to her in the way she promised to do for him. but no matter, she belonged now to a different strata of society in which other men could be found, could be loved.
Thanks to the devoted efforts of a portraitist, Emma's fame was already spreading, but it wasn't until, years later, when she entered into a controversial affair with the greatest naval hero of the age, that her star reached its zenith. The union of Emma Hamilton and Horatio Nelson coupled together the era's epic beauty with its epic hero, binding them in such mutual devotion that they ignored all the socioeconomic obstacles in the way of their love. And so, when Nelson died at Trafalgar, Emma was left with the couple's massive debts and no way to alleviate them. Without money, without a husband, without powerful friends to call upon, her fall was sudden and sharp, leaving her to waste away in an obscurity almost worse than the poverty of her youth.
It would be difficult for any author with a fingerful of talent to screw up a story with such a dynamic subject. Ms. Williams doesn't disappoint with a rapturous chronicle of a meteoric life. The parallels with modern celebrity are as striking as the starkness of 18th century poverty and the acts of desperation it provoked from those who lived under its monarchical shadow. I tend to be critical of long biographies; they have a nasty tendency to take 50-page digressions into unnecessary tangents, but the life of this remarkable woman could have filled two volumes. A must read for anyone interested in exceptional lives. And for fans of gritty history, viewed from ground 0, England's Mistress has to be on any shortlist for the five books for the the desert island. (4/5 Stars)
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