George IV
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E.A. Smith
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Format: PaperPrice: $32.00
Smith explores the roots of the king’s character and personality, stressing the importance of his relationship with his parents and twelve surviving siblings. He examines the king’s important contributions to the cultural enhancement of his capital and his encouragement of the major artistic, literary, and scholarly figures of his time. He reassesses the king’s role as constitutional monarch, contending that it was he, rather than Victoria and Albert, who created the constitutional monarchy of nineteenth-century Britain and began the revival of its popularity. Smith’s biography not only illuminates the character of one of the most colorful of Britain’s rulers but also contributes to the history of the British monarchy and its role in the nation’s life.
“[A] well-written, balanced account of the life of George IV. . . . Smith’s word has certainly succeeded in providing a picture of George IV’s life that will do much to restore a balanced view of a man who has been more vilified than is entirely just.”—Paul H. Scherer, Albion
"Smith’s . . . sympathetic account portrays a king’s grand indulgences as decorative flourishes of a darker political era."—Kirkus Reviews
"Smith opens a new window into the king’s effect on the nation, finding that his political role had much more significance than has been generally realized. Recommend this biography for its comprehensiveness and professional exactness."—Brad Hooper, Booklist
"A delightfully written and stimulating contribution to English royal history."—Derek Turner, Literary Review
“Smith has written a magisterial biography.”—Andreas Fahrmeir, German Historical Institute
“A valuable tool for future historians and a ‘good read’ for anyone interested in one of our most colourful and exasperating monarchs.”—Contemporary Review
“E. A. Smith has written a splendid biography reassuring the life and reign of a king, traditionally pictured as a pleasure loving, dissolute dilettante, interested only in wine and women. . . . Smith’s excellent revisionist study of George IV, while not avoiding his sins, throws new light on his troubled relationship with his father.”—Virginia Quarterly Review
“This well-written, thoughtful, and scholarly biography of one of the most fascinating of British monarchs is at once a major work of history and a re-evaluation that sets a standard for sympathetic biography. . . . Smith’s biography is the best available treatment of his fascinating subject.”—Jeremy Black, Notes and Queries
Publication Date: January 11, 2001
25 b/w illus.
