Beloved Emma

This fine biography marks the advent of yet another member of a remarkable literary family, for Flora Fraser is the daughter of Antonia Fraser and the granddaughter of Elizabeth Longford. She shows all of the family's considerable talent in covering the sometimes glad, sometimes sad career of the woman who insured her place in history as the mistress of Lord Nelson. Married to Lord Hamilton, who was three and a half decades older, she openly shared her favors with Nelson under the same roof and thereby outraged English society. Yet all hailed her as a rare beauty, and as this portrait makes clear, she was also a woman of wit, grace, and spirit. This highly readable work becomes the standard life. Recommended. BOMC alternate.James A. Casada, History Dept., Winthrop Coll., Rock Hill, S.C. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.