Cassidy Percoco reviewed Princesses by Flora Fraser
Review of 'Princesses' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I may come back and finish this book and update the review, but for now I'm putting it aside.
I was very excited to read Princesses as I'm very interested in royal women, especially somewhat obscure ones - and in pop culture, no royal women are more obscure than princesses who don't marry major monarchs. Unfortunately, the text turned out to be very difficult to get through.
The problem is that the book is mostly based on the letters of the princesses, their parents, and the people around them, and rather than mining them for research and then using that research to construct a narrative, it's like Fraser passively reports on what they say happened as time went by. There's no critical interpretation of these sources (they're all taken completely at face value, and even more, lukewarm statements are repeatedly taken as evidence of strong feeling - we'll be told …
I may come back and finish this book and update the review, but for now I'm putting it aside.
I was very excited to read Princesses as I'm very interested in royal women, especially somewhat obscure ones - and in pop culture, no royal women are more obscure than princesses who don't marry major monarchs. Unfortunately, the text turned out to be very difficult to get through.
The problem is that the book is mostly based on the letters of the princesses, their parents, and the people around them, and rather than mining them for research and then using that research to construct a narrative, it's like Fraser passively reports on what they say happened as time went by. There's no critical interpretation of these sources (they're all taken completely at face value, and even more, lukewarm statements are repeatedly taken as evidence of strong feeling - we'll be told "the girls adored their brothers and were heartbroken to be separated," followed by a quote where one sister wrote to a brother in Germany that she hoped he was well and that he'd come home soon) and no context given to explain the background of figures outside of the royal family or how they came to be in royal circles.
It's nice that this is based on primary source research, but a good history book/biography needs more than just quote after quote after quote from correspondence.