Dragon
The Duchess of Dino. By Philip Ziegler. (Collins, 28s.)
THIS is a book to be commended, but with strict reservations about to whom it is commended. 'Her eyes "burning with an internal fire which turned night into day" as Sainte-Beuve was to write. . . . Looking at her picture it is uncom- fortable to think how often in the first years of her life those same eyes must have been filled with tears and have shone with pain, fear and anger.' Such is the style; the matter includes many conversations given verbatim, but how authentic they are it is hard to check; in some 400 pages there are exactly forty-six references.
So it is not a book for historians, though Mr. Ziegler has obviously worked hard at his sources; but it is useful reading for the less austere. The Dino had many titles during her lifetime; the one by which she is known is derived from a tiny Italian island inhabited by rabbits and surrounded by anchovies. Her fame is due to her connection with Talleyrand, who was her uncle. Her mother was his mistress; she replaced her (and the Princess Talleyrand) in the old scoundrel's bed and acted as a most efficient secretary and minute-drafter as well. The regime seemed odd,1 even to the Congress of in-
fluence. but she had very little political n-
fluence. Her ideas were as conventional as her behaviour was not; she was imperiously hand- some, fashionably sentimental, greedy and a bully, and sometimes fell in love with weak young men. She was respected and feared by many, enjoyed by some, and so far as one can see loved by nobody, except Mr. Ziegler.
RAYMOND POSTGA1
Previous page
