Jo Manning My Lady Scandalous: The Amazing Life and Outrageous Times of Grace Dalrymple Elliott, Royal Courtesan Review

Overall Rating

My Lady Scandalous: The Amazing Life and Outrageous Times of Grace Dalrymple Elliot, Royal Courtesan
Jo Manning
Simon & Schuster, Sep 2005, $25.00
ISBN: 074326262X

This combination biography and autobiography enables Georgian and Regency readers especially of romance to gain deep insight into an interesting era of manners that today seem contradictory yet perfectly acceptable. Fans of the period will see the era through the eyes of one of the more renowned courtesans Grace Dalrymple Elliot, whose memoir was filmed by Eric Roemer The Lady and the Duke). Her insight into royalty and other members of the aristocracy is enhanced by sidebars from noted Regency author Jo Manning. Easy to read with its pick up and put down style and quite entertaining, MY LADY SCANDALOUS will elate the sub-genre audience by living up to its subtitleand providing a deep look at the outrageous life of a royal courtesan during a time of decadence and hedonism. This excellent biography is worth the time needed by the audience to absorb the details as there is so much here that bears rereading and applies so brilliantly to the novels set in this period.

Harriet Klausner