But in this case there were SO many quotes that it was distracting, and there was not enough of a narrative behind the quotes to keep the storyline cohesive. Normally I love it when authors use quotations from a historical subject's own letters or diaries, because it gives that person a voice and lets them speak for themselves. One of these things is the amount of quotations used. Also I have to clarify, the book is not bad!! It just had a number of things that hung me up enough to the point that I couldn't really enjoy reading it. It pains me to say anything negative about this book or about Flora Fraser, because I can tell that both had the best possible intentions. However, like Princess Amelia in her goal to marry her secret boyfriend before dying of tuberculosis, I failed.

For all these qualities, and because of the text layout and font (I know I'm weird, but that's an important part of a book's appeal for me), I wanted so badly to like Princesses. There was a genuine note of sympathy and admiration for the girls throughout the text, which I really appreciated. Princesses, the story of their lives by Flora Fraser, taught me a lot that I didn't know about this time period in royal history and I thought the book was very well-researched. Charlotte (Princess Royal), Augusta, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia and Amelia led difficult, often tragic lives of loneliness, loss, and illness in one of the most modest and unassuming royal courts in English history.

But that was not at all the reality of life for the six daughters of King George III, princesses of England during the late 1700's and early 1800's. Also powdered wigs and, for some reason, syphilis. When thinking of 18th century Georgian princesses, what comes to mind is beauty, opulence, voluminous satin gowns, airy palaces filled with elegant courtiers, and frivolity.

Princesses flora fraser