Overview

Modern Library’s 100th best non-fiction book of all time, and John F. Kennedy’s favourite book. A masterful biography of the life of Lord Melbourne – Queen Victoria’s Prime Minister and devoted mentor, and one of England’s most controversial statesmen – whose turbulent marriage to Lady Caroline Lamb was one of the greatest scandals of the era. A charming, curious and altogether idiosyncratic figure, Melbourne is the perfect subject for a biography and David Cecil – with his elegant, thoughtful style and perfect scholarship – was his ideal biographer. The resulting work is a true classic of the genre and remains the most important and comprehensive account of Britain’s most beguiling and individual Prime Minister. This volume contains the entirety of David Cecil's two seminal biographies of Lord Melbourne - The Young Melbourne and Lord M - in one definitive book. “A superb work of art” – Harold Nicholson “A historian of the heart” – L. P. Hartley

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9781509854929

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Reviews

The most convincing analysis that can ever have been applied to an historical personage ... -- L. P. Hartley Broadsheet Brilliant, beautiful, utterly absorbing. New York Times Book Review To convey to subsequent generations the charm of a famous figure of the past is one of the most intractable of all literary operations; Lord David has managed this task with skill. The central portrait is a superb work of art. -- Harold Nicholson

The most convincing analysis that can ever have been applied to an historical personage . . . -- L. P. Hartley * Broadsheet * Brilliant, beautiful, utterly absorbing. * New York Times Book Review * To convey to subsequent generations the charm of a famous figure of the past is one of the most intractable of all literary operations; Lord David has managed this task with skill. The central portrait is a superb work of art. -- Harold Nicholson

Author Information

Lord David Cecil (1902-1986) was a British biographer, academic and historian. He read Modern History at Oxford University where he later became a Fellow. He published his first book, a biography of the poet William Cowper, The Stricken Deer, ­in 1929; it went on to win the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize, and launched a brilliant literary career. Cecil went on to publish biographies of many other literary figures, including Jane Austen, Thomas Hardy and Shakespeare. He died in 1986.

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