- Features eight miniatures painted by Margaret de Flahaut- Draws on
unpublished and intimate correspondence from the Archives Nationales,
Paris, and elsewhereMargaret Mercer Elphinstone (1788-1867), with her
powerful mind and independent spirit, was never daunted by adversity as
she sought to realize her ambitions for her family against the
background of intellectual upheaval and social and political change
which followed the French Revolution and the end of the ancien régime.
The turning-point in her life was her controversial marriage in 1817
with the general Charles de Flahaut (1785-1870), which, contrary to all
expectations, resulted in one of the most successful partnerships in the
'auld alliance' between France and Scotland. Whereas the life of her
husband, the dashing Napoleonic general and diplomat Charles de Flahaut,
is well known, Margaret has remained in the shadows. Yet this
biographical study, based on unpublished correspondence in the Archives
Nationales, Paris, reveals her to have been the more interesting of the
two. It shows how much he depended on her brains, political judgment and
artistic taste as well as her fortune to guide him in his career. Her
lively, observant but wicked pen takes us with her on visits to
Talleyrand, to the marquis de Lafayette, to the duchesse de Praslin, to
house parties in stately homes of England and Scotland. Acknowledged a
superb hostess, her descriptions of the menus, and entertainments
organized in her homes in Scotland, London and Paris, and at the Flahaut
embassies in Vienna and in London capture the flavor of those
cosmopolitan gatherings. A lifelong liberal in politics and an upholder
of Whig principles, her politicomanie inspires sharp comments on the
opponents of Reform in England and on the self-seeking ministers of
Louis-Philippe in France.
