The Magnificent Mrs Tennant: The Adventurous Life of
ISBN: , SKU: , AUTHOR: Waller, David, PUBLISHER: Yale University Press, Gertrude Tennant's life was remarkable for its length (), but even more so for rong>therong> influence she achieved as an unsurpassed London hostess. rong>Therong> salon she established when widowed in her rong>earlyrong> fifties attracted legions rong>ofrong> celebrities, among rong>therong>m William Gladstone and Benjamin Disraeli, Oscar Wilde, Mark Twain, Thomas Huxley, John Everett Millais, Henry James, and Robert Browning. In her youth she had a fling with Gustave Flaubert, and in her later rong>yearsrong> she became rong>therong> redoubtable morong>therong>r-in-law to rong>therong> explorer Henry Morton Stanley. But as a woman in a male-dominated world, Mrs. Tennant has been remembered mainly as a footnote in rong>therong> lives rong>ofrong> eminent men. This book recovers rong>therong> lost life rong>ofrong> Gertrude Tennant, drawing on a treasure trove rong>ofrong> recently discovered family papers--thousands rong>ofrong> rong>lettersrong>, including two dozen original rong>lettersrong> from Flaubert to Tennant; dozens rong>ofrong> diaries; and many orong>therong>r unpublished documents relating to Stanley and orong>therong>r famous figures rong>ofrong> rong>therong> nineteenth and rong>earlyrong> twentieth centuries. David Waller presents Gertrude Tennant's life in colorful detail, placing her not only at rong>therong> heart rong>ofrong> a multigenerational, matriarchal family epic but also at rong>therong> center rong>ofrong> European social, literary, and intellectual life for rong>therong> best part rong>ofrong> a century.