A Scandalous Life: The Biography of Jane Digby Paperback – June 2, 2003

Wonderful story, well written and researched. Jane Digby was a fascinating 19th Century Lady who threw it all away for love. Repeatedly. Using Digby's letters, journals, and endless household lists, as well as letters and writings of her contemporaries, biographer Mary Lovell, reconstructs Digby's extraordinary life. She tells Jane's story with warmth and sensitivity. Unlike some biographers who hesitate to speculate on the emotions and motivations of their subject, Lowell is rather fearless in this regard. In parts of Jane's story where her journal entries were destroyed, Lovell's speculations help the reader flesh out the full picture of Jane Digby. Luckily this is seldom necessary since Jane, in her many written records, was very open about her life and her feelings.Jane Digby was a very modern woman living in 19th Century England. She was scandalous and admirable to the very end. Her affairs, marriages, and divorces were numerous. At age 50 she married a Bedouin Schiek half her age and lived happily with him to the end of her life.I would like to have known more about the details of her finances, since she was a wealthy woman and built several huge and lavishly furnished houses. Where did her money come from, how was it invested, by whom, how did she receive her money in all those remote places. Minor questions only however. This book is a treasure on many levels.

This book provides an example of the disparity between the treatment of men and women, even into the late 19th century. The way Ms. Digby was ostracized universally, including family, because of her desire to be free of the constraints of all levels of society, when she just wanted to live her life in freedom. Ms. Digby was far better off than her female contemporaries with fewer financial resources (one can only imagine how working-class women were treated). Ms. Digby ultimately chose to live the life of a Bedouin in a culture known to be even more repressive for women. But since she married a liberal minded Arabian royal, she was apparently shielded from that repression and found relative happiness far from her family and homeland. Perhaps the book can be an object lesson to help oppressive people and societies improve the lot for those repressed/oppressed. Decent read.

This woman is a great writer and intellect. One of the most entertaining and well researched books I have ever read. Fascinatingly full of facts, history and human interest. KUDOS to her dedication and contribution to history. Highly recommend all her books! I cannot praise her enough.

A Scandalous Life is the biography of Jane Digby, the Lady Ellenborough, a 19th century British aristocrat whose romantic life led to extensive travel across Europe and the Orient. It spans from her birth in 1807 to her first marriage in 1824 in England at the age of seventeen to her first scandal – her divorce – at the age of twenty-three, and to her death in Damascus, Syria, in 1881 at the age of 74.Her lovers and husbands included a British cabinet minister, a German baron, an Austrian prince, a Greek count, the King of Bavaria, an Albanian general, and a Bedouin nobleman.Using Jane Elizabeth Digby’s diaries written in faded pencil, French, Arabic, and even in code, as well as her notebooks, poems, sketches, coupled with newspaper articles and her family’s archives, the author details the scandalous life of a women rarely out of the tabloid news.Digby’s poems are revealing, using poetry ‘as a sort of psychiatric couch.’ Her suitors did the same. Therefore, there is a delightful amount of poetry in this biography.I enjoyed the brief sections of her life in Paris, and her collection of crinolines and fashionable clothes. But I especially enjoyed her later years in Syria (chapters 12-25), when she finally found the love of her life, a Bedouin nobleman, Sheikh Medjuel el Mezrab, twenty years younger than her. They married in 1853, when she was forty-six, and lived together for 28 years until her death in Damascus in 1881. He died in 1904.Historically, this biography provides information of Syria’s development in desert politics, conflicts, the passing explorers and visitors, and the evolving and changing times in a land rich in traditions. But moreso, it is a remarkable account of the unique life of Jane Digby el Mezrab as a Damascene gentlewoman.

I am closing in the beginning of the end, and already mourning not having this book to read at night. Jane is a person you could never have made up - no one would have believed you! She is a bit annoying as a young person, basically throwing away her life on a handful of cads and simply dropping her children off when she moved on to the next mad passion. The author does a wonderful job of setting these whirlwind passions in the the context and mores of her times. Although foot noted, it reads much more like historical fiction - definitely a page turner with quotes from Jane's contemporaries to really set the tone of the times. Incredibly well researched, and a ripping good read. What else could we ask for. So sorry that the book has to end. When is the movie coming out? Someone needs to "Bridgerton" this saga!!

I purchased this to read on my overseas holiday. I found the sentences sluggish and awkward, so it took me longer to read than usual. Jane is an interesting person so I kept reading. But, I am not sure I would reccomend as a great read.

Good read and an amazing life! Nonfiction books usually can't keep my attention for long...probably because I already know the outcome..but this was very well written, and I was not familiar with the person it was written about. I couldn't put it down. She really was a very courageous woman who led a crazy life. I kind of developed a love/hate type of feeling for her. Loved the adventurousness and bravery to travel to distant lands and see places that women from her day and society normally wouldn't go or see but her unfaithfulness in marriage and treatment of her children and family led me to dislike her at the same time. She seemed to be a very selfish and compulsive woman especially in her younger years.

Very good value, interesting, well researched.

The biography is first class research & writing

I immensely enjoyed reading this book. It transferred me into another time and place. In addition to the historic accuracy, I especially enjoyed how this book offered a non-judgmental portrayal of Jane Digby. Highly recommend it.

This is probably up there with one of the best biographies I've ever read . The subject is an extraordinary individual which helps . But Mary Lovell has researched for the book extensively and visited many of the sites in Syria personally . The book was written in the early 1990's before Syria fell into civil war but the names of the various places will sound familiar . The book is excellently written and very easy to read . I don't want to spoil the narrative by saying too much . But if your a history buff and like a good biography this one is for you .

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