A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby

This fascinating woman's life was totally unknown to me, can't believe television hasn't devoted a series on her extraordinary life of adventure. From her presentation at court, her subsequent marriage, and much publicised divorce,the reader is taken on a roller coaster journey through the courts of early 19th century Europe until finally ending up in Syria!Sexually liberated, at a time when women were expected to ignore their physical needs, she flouted all discretion in pursuit of fulfilment. From kings to bandits, to a bedouin sheik, her husbands and lovers were a mixture of cads and true gentlemen.Ms Lovell's narrative keeps the reader intrigued throughout.A well researched biography based on authentic material.Excellent read, highly recommend this book to those of you who enjoy historical biographies as l do.

Good read and an amazing life! Nonfiction books usually can't keep my attention for long...probably because I already know the outcome..but this was very well written, and I was not familiar with the person it was written about. I couldn't put it down. She really was a very courageous woman who led a crazy life. I kind of developed a love/hate type of feeling for her. Loved the adventurousness and bravery to travel to distant lands and see places that women from her day and society normally wouldn't go or see but her unfaithfulness in marriage and treatment of her children and family led me to dislike her at the same time. She seemed to be a very selfish and compulsive woman especially in her younger years.

I am closing in the beginning of the end, and already mourning not having this book to read at night. Jane is a person you could never have made up - no one would have believed you! She is a bit annoying as a young person, basically throwing away her life on a handful of cads and simply dropping her children off when she moved on to the next mad passion. The author does a wonderful job of setting these whirlwind passions in the the context and mores of her times. Although foot noted, it reads much more like historical fiction - definitely a page turner with quotes from Jane's contemporaries to really set the tone of the times. Incredibly well researched, and a ripping good read. What else could we ask for. So sorry that the book has to end. When is the movie coming out? Someone needs to "Bridgerton" this saga!!

Here's a gal who broke every Victorian rule of polite society and got away with it. Who needs women's liberation when you have the spirit, the will and a ton of money. You can see the first marriage fail not because of any fault on the part of her politician husband, but just the inability for a wildly spirited young woman to live the sedate life expected of her by her society. So affairs follow with a cousin, ambassadors, kings, generals, and eventually an Albanian bandit chief. But this is not your run of the mill femme fatal. Jane had real talent as a horsewoman and artist. Loyal to her consorts and betrayed by them more than she abandoned them. Finds her true spirit sleeping her way around the Syrian desert until she hooks up with the sheik of her life. Fulfillment in the desert - raids with her husband, spirited stallions in her corral, and architectural challenges in her building projects in Damascus. Finds a pair of kindred souls in the Burtons, serving a useful footnote in history by providing information on the one place where even that famous explorer could not penetrate - the harem. Entertaining read throughout.

Wonderful story, well written and researched. Jane Digby was a fascinating 19th Century Lady who threw it all away for love. Repeatedly. Using Digby's letters, journals, and endless household lists, as well as letters and writings of her contemporaries, biographer Mary Lovell, reconstructs Digby's extraordinary life. She tells Jane's story with warmth and sensitivity. Unlike some biographers who hesitate to speculate on the emotions and motivations of their subject, Lowell is rather fearless in this regard. In parts of Jane's story where her journal entries were destroyed, Lovell's speculations help the reader flesh out the full picture of Jane Digby. Luckily this is seldom necessary since Jane, in her many written records, was very open about her life and her feelings. Jane Digby was a very modern woman living in 19th Century England. She was scandalous and admirable to the very end. Her affairs, marriages, and divorces were numerous. At age 50 she married a Bedouin Schiek half her age and lived happily with him to the end of her life. I would like to have known more about the details of her finances, since she was a wealthy woman and built several huge and lavishly furnished houses. Where did her money come from, how was it invested, by whom, how did she receive her money in all those remote places. Minor questions only however. This book is a treasure on many levels.

This book provides an example of the disparity between the treatment of men and women, even into the late 19th century. The way Ms. Digby was ostracized universally, including family, because of her desire to be free of the constraints of all levels of society, when she just wanted to live her life in freedom. Ms. Digby was far better off than her female contemporaries with fewer financial resources (one can only imagine how working-class women were treated). Ms. Digby ultimately chose to live the life of a Bedouin in a culture known to be even more repressive for women. But since she married a liberal minded Arabian royal, she was apparently shielded from that repression and found relative happiness far from her family and homeland. Perhaps the book can be an object lesson to help oppressive people and societies improve the lot for those repressed/oppressed. Decent read.

A Scandalous Life is the biography of Jane Digby, the Lady Ellenborough, a 19th century British aristocrat whose romantic life led to extensive travel across Europe and the Orient. It spans from her birth in 1807 to her first marriage in 1824 in England at the age of seventeen to her first scandal – her divorce – at the age of twenty-three, and to her death in Damascus, Syria, in 1881 at the age of 74. Her lovers and husbands included a British cabinet minister, a German baron, an Austrian prince, a Greek count, the King of Bavaria, an Albanian general, and a Bedouin nobleman. Using Jane Elizabeth Digby’s diaries written in faded pencil, French, Arabic, and even in code, as well as her notebooks, poems, sketches, coupled with newspaper articles and her family’s archives, the author details the scandalous life of a women rarely out of the tabloid news. Digby’s poems are revealing, using poetry ‘as a sort of psychiatric couch.’ Her suitors did the same. Therefore, there is a delightful amount of poetry in this biography. I enjoyed the brief sections of her life in Paris, and her collection of crinolines and fashionable clothes. But I especially enjoyed her later years in Syria (chapters 12-25), when she finally found the love of her life, a Bedouin nobleman, Sheikh Medjuel el Mezrab, twenty years younger than her. They married in 1853, when she was forty-six, and lived together for 28 years until her death in Damascus in 1881. He died in 1904. Historically, this biography provides information of Syria’s development in desert politics, conflicts, the passing explorers and visitors, and the evolving and changing times in a land rich in traditions. But moreso, it is a remarkable account of the unique life of Jane Digby el Mezrab as a Damascene gentlewoman.

This book was a very interesting read on Jane Digby's life. I did find it was a little slow read though. I think the writer did a wonderful job on her research of Jane Digby. Think back to what an aristocratic woman’s life was like back in the 1800’s London. Here Jane was made to marry a man who was older than her and had to interest with him. She starts out trying to be a good wife to her husband who ignored her to get ahead with his political career. He pawns her off to his friends who in the ton of course are not loyal to their spouses. So starts Jane’s life. She is a person who just wants someone to love her like she loves them. There is some things that I did not like about her but thinking about how she was raised back then I can understand where she is coming from. This book covers her many affairs and about the children she had by her husbands and lovers. Overall I did like this book but I did find it to be a slow read.

I immensely enjoyed reading this book. It transferred me into another time and place. In addition to the historic accuracy, I especially enjoyed how this book offered a non-judgmental portrayal of Jane Digby. Highly recommend it.

I have no interest whatsoever in 'celeb' BUT ... I have no interest in the lives of overpriviliged landed gentry living in obscene wealth BUT ... I can't remember why I bought this book as it was everything I would have said I have no interest in the subject BUT ... A fabulous read, extremely well researched & a read I was sorry to finish. It was only afterwards that I found out that I had read & enjoyed another book by the author about Beryl Markham. One excellent book would be enough for most people, BUT TWO! Wow

This is probably up there with one of the best biographies I've ever read . The subject is an extraordinary individual which helps . But Mary Lovell has researched for the book extensively and visited many of the sites in Syria personally . The book was written in the early 1990's before Syria fell into civil war but the names of the various places will sound familiar . The book is excellently written and very easy to read . I don't want to spoil the narrative by saying too much . But if your a history buff and like a good biography this one is for you .

A wonderful, well-researched biography, written with great respect for a formidable lady :)

Sie war die schönste Frau ihrer Zeit und heiratete blutjung in höchste englische Kreise. Jane Digby hatte bald schon Liebhaber und außereheliche Kinder. Mehrfach war Digby unsterblich verliebt, schreibt Mary S. Lovell in ihrer packenden Biografie, aber nicht in jeder Ehe oder Beziehung. Digby verkehrte, wortwörtlich, in den höchsten Kreisen von London, Paris, München und Athen und kam zur Ruhe erst in Damaskus. Könige, Edelmänner und Scheichs verfielen ihr. Sie war Mätresse des Bayernkönigs Ludwig I. (1786 – 1868) in München und bezirzte später dessen Sohn Otto in Athen; Ludwig schenkte der mit einem Baron Verheirateten eine Tochter. Digby figurierte schon zu Lebzeiten in nicht weniger als acht Romanen, u.a. in Balzacs Lilie aus dem Tal. Die außergewöhnliche Jane Digby lebte später mit einem albanischen Räuberbaron – bis er sie mit ihrer langjährigen Zugehfrau betrog. Dann heiratete sie einen syrischen Beduinenscheich, der 20 Jahre jünger war als sie und die Mutter seiner Kinder für Digby in die Wüste schickte. Und diese Verbindung hielt 28 meist glückliche Jahre, bis dass der Tod sie schied. Fazit: Liebe, Verrat, High Society, europäische Metropolen und exotisch ferne Länder, Digbys Geschichte bedient alle Instinkte. Mary S. Lovell erzählt Jane Digbys unglaubliches Leben flüssig, souverän und mild süffig. Lovell tat viele neue Quellen auf, flutet ihren Haupttext jedoch nie mit Daten oder Zitaten. Lovell produziert vielmehr elegante Stimmungsbilder und Zusammenfassungen, hält die Geschichte mit runden Kapitelübergängen in Schwung (wenn auch gegen Ende zu erwartbar); man kann das Buch kaum ablegen. Sie zitiert natürlich auch aus den zeittypischen Tagebüchern und Gedichten der Protagonisten, ebenso aus Briefen, Gerichtsakten und aus der englischen Presse, die an Digbys Kapriolen gut verdiente – ein dramatischer Stoff, ideales Material für eine Biografin, und das bei exzellenter Quellenlage. Das Leben in Londoner Adelskreisen schildert Lovell überaus lebendig. Auf späteren Stationen verliert Lovell dieses scharfe Auge für den Hintergrund jedoch etwas; das gilt auch für den langen Syrien-Teil, trotz bester ergiebiger Primärquellen; aber sie sagt selbst im Vorwort, dass sie Material für 1000e Seiten hatte, doch bewusst ausgewählt hat. Insgesamt ein starkes Buch über eine starke Frau. Es ist auch unter dem Titel "Rebel Heart – A Scandalous Life" bekannt. Vergleich mit Lovell's Burton-Biografie: In Syrien traf Jane Digby auf Isabel und Richard Francis Burton (1821 – 1890). Über den englischen Entdecker und dessen Frau veröffentlichte Mary S. Lovell 1998 eine dicke, ebenfalls gut lesbare und aufwändig recherchierte Biografie. Beide Bücher scheinen gründlich recherchiert zu sein und gelten Stand 2015 als die besten zu ihrem Thema, jeweils mit zahllosen genauen Quellenangaben. In beiden Bänden nimmt Lovell die weiblichen Hauptfiguren betont in Schutz und verteidigt sie vehement gegen allerlei Kritik und Vorurteile. Während Lovell Isabel Burton im Burton-Buch fast eifernd in ein gutes Licht stellt, klingt sie bei Digby zwar deutlich zugewandt, aber zwischen den Zeilen scheint sie auch milde über Digby zu schmunzeln. Laut Lovell war Digby von Liebe, Leidenschaft und Lebenslust geleitet – und nicht etwa nymphoman oder (so der zeitgenössische englische Ausdruck) "fast". Digby, schreibt Lovell, wollte geliebt werden und verließ ihre Männer, wenn sie sich ungeliebt fühlte. Auffällig: In der Digby-Biografie steht Isabel Burton nicht so gut da wie in der späteren Biografie zu Isabel und Richard Burton, in der Mary S. Lovell die Zeit in Damaskus noch einmal aus Sicht der Burtons beschreibt. Aufbau: Der Haupttext der Digby-Biografie umfasst etwa 333 Seiten. Digbys Jugend widmet Lovell etwa 20 Seiten. Digbys verschiedenen Beziehungen in England, Deutschland und Griechenland gelten die nächsten 130 Seiten (mit wichtigen Aufenthalten auch in Paris, Basel und auf Sizilien). Mit Mitte 40 in Damaskus kommt Digby zur Ruhe – sie wechselt Land und Mann nicht mehr. Diesem letzten, langen Lebensabschnitt gelten die weiteren 183 Seiten. Weil so viel passiert, wirkt es manchmal, als ob man einen noch längeren Bericht liest. Langweilig ist es jedoch nie: erstens lebt Digby so aufregend und zweitens erzählt Lovell gut. Das Digby-Buch bringt auf 16 Kunstdruckpapierseiten interessante Fotos und Zeichnungen, alle in Schwarzweiß. Dort lernen wir auch Digbys wichtigste Geliebte und Ehemänner kennen, ebenso einige ihrer noblen Wohnsitze und freche englische Karikaturen. Lovell produziert ein ausführliches Stichwortverzeichnis (das auch Orte und Sachen auflistet, also nicht nur Personen) und Kurzbeschreibungen der verschiedenen Archive. Lovell präsentiert natürlich eine allgemeine Bibliografie, aber keine systematische Liste der Romane und Filme über Digby. Zeittafel oder Landkarten bot meine Fourth Estate-Taschenbuch-Ausgabe nicht. Die Nachfahrin: Pamela Digby Harriman (1920 – 1997) war direkte Nachfahrin Jane Digbys – und ebenfalls lebenslustig, mehrfach prominent verheiratet, Jane Digby äußerlich nicht unähnlich, zuletzt US-Botschafterin in Paris. Pamela Digby heiratete u.a. einen Sohn Winston Churchills, viel später half sie Bill Clinton ins Amt, zwischendurch war sie Geliebte Giovanni Agnellis und anderer Industrietycoone "A unique story well told..." – die Kritiker: Washington Post: Fortunately, Mary Lovell stumbled onto Jane's letters and diaries, which had been preserved by her family. From these accounts, plus Lowell's own scrupulous research, she has finally set the record straight about an amazing, accomplished and much maligned woman. It is a unique story well told. Goodreads: 4,01 von 5 Sternen bei 522 Stimmabgaben J.L. Ashurst bei Amazon UK: Mary Lovell had access to an immense amount of documentation during the writing of this book, including the diaries (previously thought lost) of Jane Digby herself. This lends the book a wealth of colour and detail which many biographies cannot match.... it is too short and definitely not detailed enough considering the source material. I have the strong suspicion that this is the publisher's fault. The most detailed part of the book is Jane's life from her late forties onwards. I felt that the earlier part of her life, including the eponymous scandal of her first divorce, should have been framed better in its period. Publishers Weekly: Lovell provides vivid descriptions of tribal life as well as Digby's more lavish existence in Damascus, where she entertained Western tourists. So much for repressed Victorians.