In this novel, Daphne Du Maurier sheds a lot of brilliance to the life of Mary Anne Clarke, including her notoriety and her greed for a fancy high-class life.

Mary Anne Thompson--later Clarke--who was the author’s great-great-grandmother lived during the early 19th century. She was born in 1776 into poverty on London’s East End. As a precocious and intelligent child, she made up her mind to become rich and important. As a clever and resourceful young teen, she learned copy editing by helping her stepfather.

But she made a wrong move in 1791 when she mistakenly thought a young man to be rich as he had a father in business. Thus, Mary Anne eloped with Joseph Clarke, a stone mason who drank and gambled and whose father disowned him, cutting him off from his inheritance. Joseph’s behavior forced a desperate Mary Anne with four children to fend for the family. At the end, Joseph and Mary Anne’s relationship collapsed, and Mary Anne decided to become an escort to gentlemen of London’s high society.

With the help of a iffy gentleman named Will Ogilvie, Mary Anne became the mistress of a prince, the Duke of York Frederick Augustus. As the prince didn’t pay her enough, she used her influence with him to provide favors to many people, getting them appointed to the military or other offices and being paid (commissioned would be a better word) by them.

When her business was found out and made public, the Duke of York left her even though he probably knew what she had been doing.

The rest of the story shows her involvement in scandals, intrigue, conspiracy, and scheming against the Duke and against one political party or and another, the plot giving way to some interesting historical court cases.

Although the characterization in the story is superb, Mary Anne’s behavior didn’t endear her to me. The Duke of York, even after all she did, still helped her son. Then, although she had feelings and respect for the Duke, she caused his downfall for her own ends. In my opinion, this made her the villain and not a lovable protagonist, granted she might have been a feminist of the time who first fought for her rights and granted that Daphne Du Maurier was so taken with her.

This quote from the book toward its end shows best the internal workings of this protagonist: "But that was life, that sudden ecstasy, that upsurge of the spirit for no reason, calling the blood at eight, or fifty-two. It came upon her now, as it always had done: a happy flood of feeling, a wild unrest. This moment counts. This moment, and no other."

At times, the book reads like fiction, and at other times, it is straight history, but since I enjoy historical fiction, I read this book to the end and was very glad that I did.

reading Daphne du Maurier in a different light.

reading about the Whigs and Tories clashes and the French involvement, although to a minimal degree. Also the rivalry between Duke of York and the Duke of Kent (brothers!) was a bit of royal gossip.

is Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, DBE (1907-1989). She was an English author and playwright. Although she is classified as a romantic novelist, her stories have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal.
Du Maurier's great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke, was mistress to the Duke of York Frederick Augustus, during the Napoleonic Wars.

I enjoyed it, but I can also see that most people would be put off by the courtroom scenes and the dry political give and take.

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Created May 29, 2020 at 8:23pm • Submit your own review...