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Does justice to its subject: a perfect biography
Sex and scandal at its best

Lola Montez: A Life
Bruce Seymour
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0300074395

Book Description

During a short but incredible life, Lola Montez transformed herself from middle-class British daughter to notorious adventurer, attracting admirers and scandal wherever she went. This highly entertaining biography uncovers the real story of one of the best-known women of the Victorian era-a dancer and actress, a power behind thrones, and a mistress across four continents.

Customer Reviews:

Does justice to its subject: a perfect biography.......2006-12-11

The editorial blurbs give the basic facts of Lola's life, but what they cannot convey is the verve with which Bruce Seymour tells her tales. A prefatory note acknowledges the game show Jeopardy as enabling him to write the book thanks to his winnings. His four years were well spent. Seymour, therefore, is no ordinary scholar on the tenure track. As a lawyer, he brings skill in analyzing documents and developing contexts within which Lola and her conquests could act within and beyond the force of the law.

He has certainly done his research, but this book wears it lightly and elegantly. Elegance for a girl from Cork who in less globalized times of instant celebrity and social networking could pose as a Spaniard, dance her way into the wallets and beds of countless besotted swains, and then, once dumped or dumping, move on to her next conquest seemingly for decades little the worse, at least on the surface, for wear. Lightly, or so she seemed, over years of unpredictable liaisons within the turmoil of 1848 and a Europe that threatened to topple the monarchies within which Lola worked her machinations and maximized her share of the winnings.

While not the dour, earnest, or sharpish stereotype of the early feminist, nonetheless she pioneered the right of a woman to be heard and her power--in and out of the boudoir being formidable--to be taken seriously by those in quite influential positions of celebrity and/or acclaim themselves. Lola early perfected her ability to live by her quick study of her suitors, her rivals, and their relative positions vis-a-vis her own advantage. The blackberried and suited type-A CEOs finding and then shattering a glass ceiling in later years also may find that her life anticipates the troubles and the triumphs of being the first woman to successfully make into fact what Becky Sharp in Thackeray's "Vanity Fair" displayed in fiction. Lola certainly does remind you of a storybook tale, in all its complications, subplots, and, well, climaxes.

This is one of my favorite books. It shows how to chart a life and from it extrapolate directions that intersect, far off, with our own condition-- as a good biography should do. Lola was one of the first mass media phenomenons. She spurred the newspapers to promote her and they were only too eager to do so. Of course, this could backfire, but she does, in her later years, appear to have thrived from no publicity is bad publicity. Yet, nearer her death, repentance did occur, and she follows again the narrative arc of so many 18 and 19c fictional protagonists.

She managed to give as good as she got. The press pumped her up and cast her aside as both would sell papers. Her notoriety, carefully cultivated, managed to ensure that for much of the 19th century's middle decades, she would remain prominent, as much so at least as the nobles and royals with whom she connived and cavorted.

Many of those enjoying via MySpace or YouTube through their Warholian fifteen minutes of fame today have Lola to thank as their unwitting predecessor. Yet Seymour neither exaggerates or diminishes her impact. His thorough research into primary and secondary sources allows him to compare what she herself wrote about her life with what happened, or as much as can be known 150 years later. This book, taking on a woman so wrapped up in whipped-up scandal and calculated brazenness, clever self-defence and bold self-aggrandizing, is a notable feat. For those in her potential audience today less hungry for today's spotlights, Lola's story, naturally, is also a cautionary tale in the personal and financial costs of so much controversy and backstabbing and maneuvering, in a time when she, as a lone woman, dared to take on the establishment with wit, intelligence, and shrewdness.

Sex and scandal at its best.......2000-11-13

Beautiful, lovely, sexy and fascinating -- makes me want to do a little Spanish dancing and start an adventure.

The woman in black;: The life of Lola Montez

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The woman in black;: The life of Lola Montez
Helen O'Donnell Holdredge
Manufacturer: Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

THE HEAVENLY SINNER: The Life and Loves of Lola Montez

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THE HEAVENLY SINNER: The Life and Loves of Lola Montez
T. Everett HARRE
Manufacturer: The Macaulay Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000H22P7C

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The heavenly sinner;: The life and loves of Lola Montez,
T. Everett Harre
Manufacturer: Macaulay
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006AMZB6

The Uncrowned Queen, Life of Lola Montez

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The Uncrowned Queen, Life of Lola Montez
Ishbel Ross
Manufacturer: Harper and Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JVHM5G

THE WOMAN IN BLACK - THE LIFE OF THE GABULOUS LOLA MONTEZ

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THE WOMAN IN BLACK - THE LIFE OF THE GABULOUS LOLA MONTEZ
Helen Holdredge
Manufacturer: Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HWEI9K

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The uncrowned queen;: Life of Lola Montez
Ishbel Ross
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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The Uncrowned Queen: Life of Lola Montez
Ishbel Ross
Manufacturer: Harper & Row
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA8YMC

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Uncrowned Queen: Life of Lola Montez
Ishbel Ross
Manufacturer: HARPER & ROW
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OLL6EO

Lectures of Lola Montez With a Full and Complete Autobiography of Her Life

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Lectures of Lola Montez With a Full and Complete Autobiography of Her Life
Lola Montez
Manufacturer: T. B. Peterson
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PRYJ7S

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