The Churchills: In Love and War (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780393062304)

The first Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) was a soldier of such genius that a lavish palace, Blenheim, was built to honor his triumphs. Succeeding generations of Churchills sometimes achieved distinction but also included profligates and womanizers, and were saddled with the ruinous upkeep of Blenheim. The family fortunes were revived in the nineteenth century by the huge dowries of New York society beauties Jennie Jerome (Winston's mother) and Consuelo Vanderbilt (wife to Winston's cousin).

Mary S. Lovell brilliantly recounts the triumphant political and military campaigns, the construction of great houses, the domestic tragedies, and the happy marriage of Winston to Clementine Hosier set against the disastrous unions of most of his family, which ended in venereal disease, papal annulment, clinical depression, and adultery.

The Churchills were an extraordinary family: ambitious, impecunious, impulsive, brave, and arrogant. Winston--recently voted "The Greatest Briton"--dominates them all. His failures and triumphs are revealed in the context of a poignant and sometimes tragic private life.

Author: Mary S. Lovell
ISBN-10: 0393062309
ISBN-13: 9780393062304
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 05/09/2011
Pages: 640
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.40lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.51w x 1.98d

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 04/01/2011 pg. 93
Booklist 04/15/2011 pg. 18
Library Journal Prepub Alert 12/01/2010 pg. 90
Publishers Weekly 05/23/2011
Library Journal 12/01/2010 pg. 90
New York Times Book Review 06/26/2011 pg. 21
New York Times Book Review 07/03/2011 pg. 22
Reference and Research Bk News 08/01/2011 pg. 24