Charles Greville (1794–1865)

History as it unfolds, seen through the eyes of a man of wit and brains with entry into the highest circles of power. This is not a memoir with personal details and scandalous tales. It reads like a political expose of how a country is governed and the machinations of power. This is book one in a trilogy and chronicles the reign of George IV. As I am fond of that time and have read a lot of books featuring people who lived in that century, the fact that Greville was a name-dropper was interesting in and of itself as I recognized so many. The book had its dry and boring moments when this reader wished for something salacious or lively. Almost the last quarter of the book was a detailed, description of his trip to Italy and Venice and all the ruins and monuments and painting and statutes and palaces till I wanted to pitch the book. I did love when he met characters I had read about like Lord Cochrane, Beau Brummell and Talleyrand. The book had me googling names and reading potted biographies to remind myself about these people because, though he did describe them with thumbnail sketches, there was so much more and I had mostly met them in books of fiction (actually I do remember a full biography of Cochrane who was the inspiration for Hornblower and Aubrey). So, now I go on to Book Two...William IV… (mere)

History as it unfolds, seen through the eyes of a man of wit and brains with entry into the highest circles of power. This is not a memoir with personal details and scandalous tales. It reads like a political expose of how a country is governed and the machinations of power. This is book one in a trilogy and chronicles the reign of George IV. As I am fond of that time and have read a lot of books featuring people who lived in that century, the fact that Greville was a name-dropper was interesting in and of itself as I recognized so many. The book had its dry and boring moments when this reader wished for something salacious or lively. Almost the last quarter of the book was a detailed, description of his trip to Italy and Venice and all the ruins and monuments and painting and statutes and palaces till I wanted to pitch the book. I did love when he met characters I had read about like Lord Cochrane, Beau Brummell and Talleyrand. The book had me googling names and reading potted biographies to remind myself about these people because, though he did describe them with thumbnail sketches, there was so much more and I had mostly met them in books of fiction (actually I do remember a full biography of Cochrane who was the inspiration for Hornblower and Aubrey). So, now I go on to Book Two...William IV… (mere)