The Book Depository That Woman by Anne Sebba
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Price: £12.99
Brand: The Book Depository
Description: That Woman : Paperback : Orion Publishing Co : 9780753827390 : 0753827395 : 19 Jan 2012 : Bestselling biography of the enduringly fascinating Wallis Simpson. The Book Depository That Woman by Anne Sebba - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: The Book Depository
Product ID: 9780753827390
MPN: 0753827395
GTIN: 9780753827390
Author: R. Moore
Rating: 5
Review: I really enjoyed this book - though I knew very little about Wallis Simpson. It has clearly been well researched by the author and did lead to some fascinating insights. Only criticism was the constant reference to her perhaps being a man, there is no proof and the author seemed obsessed with this theory coming back to it time and again when describing operations and health conditions of Wallis, I’ve read others be put off the book for this reason. However, that alone is not a reason to avoid this book the rest of the content makes for an interesting read
Author: S. Ramsey-Hardy
Rating: 2
Review: It is a fact that women sometimes define their success by the status of 'the man in their life'. A hundred years ago when Wallis Simpson was growing up, most women perceived their status in this way. This is probably of considerable significance in any attempt to understand the nature of Wallis's ambitious personality -so it is surprising that such important perceptions of status are nowhere addressed by Anne Sebba, in her biography of "that woman". This omission is surprising because the author describes circumstances in which Wallis MUST have learned the importance of a man in her life. Throughout her girlhood Wallis and her widowed mother depended on hand-outs from her rich, but cantankerous uncle. It was a tense and humiliating set-up, a life-defining experience for Wallis. Nevertheless, the author does not venture to explore the important lessons linked to men, security, money and status which (evidence strongly suggests) Wallis learned from it. Soon after the encounter between Wallis Simpson and Edward, Prince of Wales this story ceases to be a biography of one person. It becomes the drama of an evolving relationship, because the two were soon bound together, like the survivors of a shipwreck. It is due to the Prince who became her third husband (and for no other reason) that Wallis Simpson is famous today, and in order to make sense of her niche in history a biography of Mrs.Simpson must include a consideration of the Prince she married. But here Ms.Sebba's book has another weakness, because the author's assessment of Edward, Prince of Wales is wanting. When this incredible story is told it is vital the reader is put in touch with the reputation which surrounded him. In his own time the Prince's extraordinary charisma, celebrated worldwide in newsreels and press photos, was a phenomenon never known before. He was a star, who possessed a natural genius for the public aspects of his role. In terms of historical perspective, the way this Prince touched people's lives is an essential aspect of the drama triggered by Wallis. But the author fails to bring this factor to life. Had the author given us a sharper idea of what Edward, Prince of Wales meant to people, we would have a better understanding of the resentment (and fear) felt by those in-the-know, when the outsider Wallis Simpson arrived at centre stage. And a better understanding of the angry reaction of ordinary people across the Empire to the unknown "Mrs.Simpson", when they learned that because of her, this idolised King was going to quit his Throne. The most significant aspect of Ms.Sebba's book is a new source which puts a fresh light on Mrs.Simpson's feelings about the King. The author discovered letters written by Mrs.Simpson to her just-divorced husband Ernest in 1936-7. As well as making clear that their divorce had been collusive (and illegal) these important letters indicate that despite her divorce, and her approaching marriage to a man who had been King of England, Wallis was more genuinely attached to her former husband, the dull Ernest Simpson. The letters affirm that she was not in love with 'Peter Pan', the King whose crushing personal needs had engulfed her existence and taken control of her life. It is equally clear in the letters that Mrs.Simpson was horrified by her sudden notoriety and the lurid publicity which (she felt) destroyed her good name. She received sacks of hate-mail, much of which she read. Her unasked-for notoriety was an indelible wound to Wallis' pride -a fact usually overlooked by biographers. In light of her humiliation and distress it is hardly credible that "Mrs.Simpson had played the game of life and won", an opinion quoted in the blurb on this book. To make sense of this relationship a franker analysis is needed than the one offered here... Let's talk frankly...from her point of view... The former King was in the grip of an emotional obsession. He had brushed aside Mrs.Simpson's doubts, he had destroyed her marriage to Ernest, curtailed her freedom of action, and cornered her into marrying him. The Royal Family then scorned and publicly rejected her. Did all this mean Wallis had "won" ? Wallis was not 'an empowered woman', as this book would like to suggest. On the contrary, she had been disempowered by the King. This began as a relationship which the tough, independent and self-confident Mrs.Simpson thought she could "manage" without destroying her marriage to Ernest. But it had disastrously escaped her control -and she ended up losing what was really important to her: her husband and her good name. The Abdication of King Edward VIII was the last thing Mrs.Simpson wanted. With a stroke it ended the influential social position she had enjoyed as friend of the King. Judged unfit to be the King's wife, Wallis Simpson immediately lost her flattering social position in London, and was now publicly despised. The Abdication branded her with blame, widespread contempt, and prurient speculation which continues to this day. The injury to her pride was severe, and lasting. Worst of all, the King's Abdication imprisoned her forever in a new marriage -with a man she did not love. Naturally, none of this negative reality could she ever openly express. Her memoirs paint a different picture, of a romantic myth. In married exile, the private tensions between this couple must have been enormous. All he wanted was constant love. All she wanted was a royal title to salvage her reputation. Both were disappointed. Mrs.Simpson had become a duchess, but the world continued to see her as "that woman", and she knew it. She sought compensation in clothes, jewels, and a relentless social life, detesting England for having rejected her. The increasingly sad-looking Duke of Windsor trailed after her, even when she went to buy a hat. The power-position in their relationship had reversed. As if in apology, the Duke of Windsor submitted his will to the discontented Duchess, and she proceeded to dominate her gilded prison. The Duke's adoration was undimmed, and he suffered greatly when in 1950 she embarked on an embarrassing flirtation with the extremely rich Jimmy Donahue. It was the closest she got in public to expressing her boredom and frustration. This is a new book, and the newly discovered letters from Wallis to Ernest Simpson are of historical importance, but a much more vivid and fascinating dual-biography of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor was actually published 30 years ago: "The Windsor Story", by Bryan and Murphy.
