Jehanne Wake
As gripping as the best historical novel, ,Sisters of Fortune ,is the story of the exuberant Marianne, Bess, Louisa, and Emily Caton, the American sisters who enthralled the highest levels of English Regency society decades before the notorious Dollar Princesses of the Victorian era. The Caton sisters were descended from prominent first settlers of Maryland, brought up by their wealthy grandfather Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence, and were expected to â€œmarry a plantation.â€ Instead, their grandfather made sure that they were well educated, raising four beautiful and charming young women who were unusually independent, intelligent, fascinated by politics, clever with money, and very romantic. ,Arriving in Britain, the Caton sisters swept into the set of the Duke of Wellington and went on to forge their own destinies in the face of intense prejudice against Americans and Catholics. After capturing the heart of the Duke of Wellington, who could never marry her, Marianne shocked the world by marrying his brother Richard, Marquess Wellesley, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and taking a prominent place as a Catholic Yankee among the Protestant Anglo-Irish. Emily married Scots- Canadian John McTavish, heir to Montrealâ€™s North West Company, and stayed home in Maryland, where she managed the familyâ€™s estates and wealth. Louisa became the Duchess of Leeds and a member of Queen Victoriaâ€™s court, while Bess made a fortune speculating in the stock market. ,Based on the sistersâ€™ intimate, unpublished letters and lavishly illustrated, ,Sisters of Fortune ,is a portrait of four lively and opinionated women, much of it told in their own voices as they gossip about prominent people of their time, advise family members on political and financial strategy, soothe each otherâ€™s sorrows, and rejoice in each otherâ€™s triumphs. It is also a meticulously researched history of Anglo-American relations and the political, financial, and social world of the nineteenth century. From post-revolutionary Americaâ€™s White House and wealthiest plantations to Europeâ€™s rarefied world of titled aristocracy, the story of Marylandâ€™s Caton sisters is a stunning work of scholarship that is intimate in tone, sweeping in scope, and as compelling as any novel.
History,Biography,Nonfiction,North American Hi...,American History,Historical,Womens,European Literature,British Literature,Autobiography,Memoir,Historical,Regency,Literature,18th Century
Sisters of Fortune: Americaâ€™s Caton Sisters at Home and Abroad