A Circle of Sisters: Alice Kipling, Georgiana Burne Jones, Agnes Poynter, and Louisa Baldwin

by Judith Flanders

THE MACDONALD SISTERS--Alice, Georgiana, Agnes, and Louisa--started life in the teeming ranks of the lower-middle classes, denied the advantages of education and the expectation of social advancement. Yet as wives and mothers they would connect a famous painter, a president of the Royal Academy, a prime minister, and the uncrowned poet laureate of the Empire. Georgiana and Alice married, respectively, the pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and the arts administrator Edward Poynter; Louisa gave birth to future prime minister Stanley Baldwin, and Alice was mother to Rudyard Kipling. "A Circle of Sisters brings to life four women living at a privileged moment in history. Their progress from obscurity to imperial grandeur indicates the vitality of nineteenth-century Britain: a society abundant with possibility. From their homes in India, America, and England, the sisters formed a network that, through the triumphs and tragedies of their families and the Empire, uniquely endured.

Genres: Biography, History, Nonfiction, Victorian, Art, Biography Memoir, 19th Century

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Judith Flanders was born in London, England, in 1959. She moved to Montreal, Canada, when she was two, and spent her childhood there, apart from a year in Israel in 1972, where she signally failed to master Hebrew.

After university, Judith returned to London and began working as an editor for various publishing houses. After this 17-year misstep, she began to write and in 2001 her first book, A Circle of Sisters, the biography of four Victorian sisters, was published to great acclaim, and nominated for the Guardian First Book Award. In 2003, The Victorian House (2004 in the USA, as Inside the Victorian Home) received widespread praise, and was shortlisted for the British Book Awards History Book of the Year. In 2006 Consuming Passions, was published. Her most recent book, The Invention of Murder, was published in 2011.

Judith also contributes articles, features and reviews for a number of newspapers and magazines.

Reviews

[Sherwood Smith]

A readably adequate general introduction to the Macdonald sisters and their severally famous husbands/offspring.

It begins quite strongly, painting a solid picture of the Methodists' perspective on the early nineteenth century, but once the sisters marry, the focus seems to shift more to the men and their achievements.

Two of the sisters retire to their beds as professional invalids, and nearly disappear: though Flanders warns of this in the introduction, I thought that meant there would be some digging into why, but as the book progressed, this seemed more of an excuse for leaving them out. By the end, the book is a somewhat tangled recitation of what all the descendants did, and some authorial judgments slipped in; the men have overshadowed the women.

I could have used more quotations of the sisters' voices and fewer rhetorical questions, but overall, a pleasant read.

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is exactly what the title states. 4 stars for that and the research. The amount of actual first source materials, like letters and documents, or diary notes etc.- those were phenomenal. I don't think I've read a book with these many reference pages or source copy segments in one read for years. Certainly not about people as individuals without celeb or historical status all their own.

The reason I didn't round this up to a 4 star read is because the reading comprehension pace and context was so difficult. This is about 24 or 30 individual lives over the period of the Victorian reign and just after. The modes of living, places, processes for base sustainability (food, washing/cleaning, medical or nursing, heating for family of from 4 to 10 people)! All of those in each of dozen or more locations just for the 1 base family alone. It's specificity in particular is very difficult to comprehend or compose for the reader in one held together type of cognition as a whole.

But if you have any true desire for insight into what life was like for these sisters and their marriages and subsequent family outcomes- I really do recommend this book.

About 1/2 way through I read some of the reviews for this book and I was truly taken aback. Because I think they did read the book and also didn't seem to "get" any of what they read. Different mores, different sensibilities to the energy needed to do all this work! These women were without the 5 or 6 servant situations. They were lucky to have a kitchen that operated or a cook to work within it. And I cannot imagine doing 4 or 5 full days per month of just transporting water for clothes washing. Plus 2 or 3 full days further per month for cleaning surfaces and ashes from cooking stoves or heating sources. And all of that childbirth and pregnancy in the midst! And the sorrow and grief of so many deaths each and every year along the way. And/or nursing broths or other medical suggested for the current invalid at the same time.

All of them were attachments to the arts and were cored on the role of women for that period. Bravery beyond describing to put so many children in graves and do it all over again the next week and the next. Often having to move the entire to new places at the least every 3 years or more often for some of them. I'd travel and visit too, if I could. Because the sheer volume of work would destroy without some respite.

How could you criticize rest or invalid positions for any of them. Husbands were at times too. Their very Father was "out of the workplace" or in rest for periods of year or more at different times. And the husbands in their various roles were also sometimes not earning or at least absent to procure sales or career. How can you judge when silence and forgetting becomes necessary? Saying goodbye in years length of suffering for another 15 year old sister? Losing baby and baby who lasted 6 weeks or less that didn't thrive. Or losing a brother to another continent.

There was just too much to deal with in life and sacrifice alone to be dredging out the past voids or hurts. I can even understand how the youngest sister Edith was "outside" the circle for connotation or recognition.

At one point in this book I counted the diseases and conditions these people lived through or not. Most of them had themselves or had closest blood within 4 to 8 different infectious states at one time or another. It's no wonder that the stoutest and strongest barely got to 56. Or that 60 was ancient in retrospect.

Here is a book to read that tells you like it was in England for some of the "luckiest" of educated middle class. The clothes alone! I can't imagine having to wear that weight or wash them constantly. Without hot running water. Or the 20 years of constant diapers for 2 or 3 at the same time. No wonder Hannah had about 15 hired cooks in 20 years in 6 different assigned to her husband locations. With almost no other servants or just 1 other present hired help? I'd quit before a year was up too.

The photos, the husbands' art, drawings, work related sketching etc.- they were all 5 star. As was her reference sections in the afterparts of the book. All the footnotes were not shabby either. The essence here is the wider view of their family settings' progress, and what the Victorian woman could and couldn't do. It's real and profoundly accurate. But in 2020 seems to be judged by criteria of much later, physically healthier, and much looser in any sense of mores time.

[Hilary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Purportedly about the Macdonald sisters who married Edward Burne-Jones, Poynter, and the fathers of Kipling, and Stanley Baldwin, this was more about their husbands and sons than about themselves. In fact two of the sisters seemed to spend most of their lives on their sick beds.

There was, however, some interesting social history of the Victorian period, but the style was leaden and there was a sense that the author was determined to include all her research however tenuous. Disappointing.

[Leonie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The subject matter was interesting enough, and the writing wasn't devoid of entertainment, but this was a little disappointing. Part of the problem is that this claims to be a biography of four sisters. It is more a biography of a much wider family milieu and Agnes and Louisa in particular get very little space indeed. This possibly means that the project is a little misconceived and not all the sisters actually did much and there just isn't the material. But that's not really a good enough reason, not least because Flanders herself seems somewhat aware of it as a possible criticism: in her preface and afterward she seems to be trying to argue that the interest of personality and relationships is as worthy of biography as lives full of action.

The flaw is the execution: Flanders sucks at differentiating personality. Georgie gets the most focus, and I think even she came out clearer in Penelope Fitzgerald's biography of Burne-Jones. The other sisters really aren't distinguished from each other at all, and it sounds like there ought to be enough material to at least do that. All of them are described as being quite sharp and judgemental, and while it's interesting to talk about how a shared family culture of traits manifests, they were different people and must have had personalities beyond that.

The other problem is a similar indistinctness when it comes to introducing the many other figures and what was going on in their lives: again, that Fitzgerald biography was probably more help grounding me than this book itself.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 1 out of 5]

A poor family headed by a Methodist minister had five surviving daughters and two sons. Of these, the four daughters who married all had husbands or sons of import, and are supposedly the focus of this book.

I say supposedly because pages go by without one of them being mentioned. The vast majority of this book is actually about their various relations. From the first to the last the four sisters get very little attention, and in fact I came away with only a vague understanding of Georgie Burne-Jones and the rest remained cyphers. After the daughters marry and start having children, they fall out of the narrative almost entirely and the book becomes more and more disorganized and scattered.

Bad enough that the ostensible focus of the book is nearly ignored, but the various children and grandchildren receive very variable amounts of attention--I felt that about half this book was about Rudyard Kipling, whereas three-time Prime Minister of Britain Stan Baldwin gets literally two paragraphs to summarize his entire political career.

And, icing on my hate-cake, the author has the strangest interpretations of letters and happenings that I have ever seen. She decides upon the nastiest interpretation every single time. See my status updates for examples.

[Brenda Clough · Rating 4 out of 5]

A linked biography of the sisters, which goes deeply into the things a Victorian woman could (and could not) do.

[Deborah Siddoway · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am an avid reader of Flanders's work, and while I found this biography of the four sisters well-researched, I do feel that it is not her best work. Like many of the other reviewers, I found that the sisters who were ostensibly the subjects of the biography seemed to drop out of the narrative far too often, with the focus invariably turning to the husbands and children, rather than staying fixed on the women. That said, the book is clearly well-researched, with the author always willing to flag up where there are gaps in the understanding due to the lack of source materials, sometimes because those source materials (such as letters, for example) have been destroyed by the family members.

While the book contains a lot of interesting information, the narrative style can be a little challenging, and with a vast family to contend with, it sometimes became very difficult to keep track of who was who - the family tree at the start of the book was a useful and essential addition in that respect.

All in all, while I have really loved her other books, this one was good, but not compelling.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this biography of the Macdonald sisters who became Alice Kipling (mother of Rudyard), Georgiana Burne-Jones (wife of the painter Edward Burne-Jones, grandmother of author Angela Thirkell), Agnes Poynter (wife of the painter Edward Poynter), and Louisa Baldwin (wife of Alfred Baldwin, businessman and Member of Parliament, and mother of 3-time Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin). It was interesting reading about the large, extended family. The book ends with a quote from one of the great grand children which I think is great: "If they were inspiring people, they were also appallingly demanding. They were, in fact, the sort of family that one would perhaps rather read about than belong to."

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. Wonderfully readable, the text draws you into the world of the MacDonald sisters, with Georgiana Burne Jones's ineractions with the Pre-Raphaelite circle most interesting of all. Recommended.

[Sarah Boothroyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full of interesting information; I didn't care for the occasionally sneering tone.

[Patcholi1961]

Wonderfully written and researched. Very insightful.

The only reason but it took me a certain time to finish this book is that I found the people portrayed in it to be so objectionable and unsympathetic (albeit fascinating).

[Katharine · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of the Macdonald sisters (and their brothers, husbands, sons and daughters) who came from a family of strongly Methodist, middle-class origins but which eventually included a future Prime Minister, a very famous novelist and several other writers, and a well-known and less well known painter. The author uses them to look at family relationships and the roles women were expected to play in the Victorian era. At times the men of the family start to overwhelm the story but the women were just as interesting, even if their talents were not given such a chance to shine. An interesting book.

[Rhona Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second read of this book, following the fascinating four Macdonald sisters, Alice (who became the mother of Rudyard Kipling), Georgiana (wife of pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones, grandmother to authors Denis Mackail and Angela Thirkell), Agnes (wife of Edward Poynter, President of the Royal Academy) and Louisa (wife of Alfred Baldwin MP and mother of Stanley Baldwin MP, 3 times Prime Minister). It is full of research which takes away slightly from the narrative voice, with weighty extracts from diaries and letters. The author also provides a huge amount of detail on the Victorian circumstances in which the girls lived. That said, I loved it.

[Catherine Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The lives of four sisters who were the wives or mothers of four famous men in the 19th and 20th century. I admired the way the author drew all the information together to create the portrait of the sisters and their personalities whilst also acknowledging the lives of the men who made their mark in the arts, politics and literature.

[Julie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had the potential to be a very dry book, but Flanders' writing kept it quite interesting. I had the great pleasure to dive into it during a three-day vacation, and was able to really sink into the Victorian glory of the MacDonald sisters' lives.

[Charlotte · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sadly doesn't deliver on its promise to shine a light on these ladies instead of on their famous husbands and children. The book is at its best in the first half and when the everyday victorian life is demonstrated through this family.

[Emmeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Judith Flanders but found that not quite enough was known about the sisters to create a gripping narrative, and that they weren't all that interesting or sympathetic. Enjoyable bits about the pre-Raphaelites though.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thoroughly readable account of the intertwined lives of the Macdonald sisters - whose marriages resulted in lasting legacies of art (Burne-Jones and Poynter), politics (Baldwin), and poetry (Kipling).

[Moya Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This biography is the story of four McDonald sisters who through their marriages were intimately connected with four famous Victorian men. Alice, Georgiana, Agnes and Louisa all married men of "importance": Burne-Jones, a Kipling, Edward Poynter and a Baldwin. The writer has a curious lack of feminist awareness about the position of women in the Victorian period. She is aware that these four sisters are significant only because of the men they married. Their lives might have been very different if they had lived in the late 20th century. However, the book gives a fascinating look into the typical life of Victorian woman restricted by their lack of equality. They have no vote, no divorce, no legal rights and no income outside that of their husbands. One or two were the centre of family life while others suffered on-going and unexplained illnesses. The author covers the cases of insanity in their families, as well as the depressions, eating disorders, and other ailments. In spite of the lack of freedom in the lives of these Victorian women, all four established Victorian "dynasties" which are presented over the next two generations. A fascinating insight into the lives of Victorian wives.

[K P · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

I read this book initially years ago, and was fascinated by the rise of these sisters from a very modest beginning to the highest ranks of society. As the author points out, they inhabited a time when ability was beginning to matter, not just birth. On re-reading it, I was struck again by the glimpses into the social mores of this changing era, and especially the role of women. The sisters' mother is still weighed down with household duties and child-bearing and rearing even though her husband's profession as a Methodist minister is a respected one. That their son's choice of school friend will lead to this remarkable true story is amazing.
The book is a mine of knowledge and research, though told in a rather dry way. The Kindle version unfortunately contains some transcription errors, notably though not exclusively where amounts of money are concerned. These are included to make a point, so it's irritating to have to try and guess what's meant when it has been transcribed by some one or some program which knows nothing of English currency pre-1972!
It is, however, a book I have remembered over the years.

[Margaret Conmey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having recently joined the Angela Thirkell Society ( granddaughter of Edward and Georgina Burne-Jones) I have been extending my knowledge of this quite incredible family
There a very few families that can boast of a UK Prime Minister and a Nobel Laureate ( still the youngest winner for literature) in one generation, plus all the other successful writers in the family ( although in the footnote at the end Denis MacKail ( Georgiana’s grandson was omitted)
I agree with some of the other reviews- as the book progressed it was less about the MacDonald sisters and more about the men in their lives , especially Rudyard Kipling
I accept that after their marriages there was very little to say about Louisa MacDonald Baldwin , and even less about Agnes’s MacDonald Poynter but I think more could have been said about Georgiana, eg her close friendship with the novelist George Eliot
There were some interesting divergences into household management in middle class Victorian homes, and again , I think it would have been better to spend more time of the lives of Victorian women rather than devoting time to their famous husbands and male offspring who all have biographies

[Sophie (RedheadReading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up because this saved me on a very long and delayed airport experience! I appreciate the focus Judith Flanders shines on the lived reality of domestic existence in the Victorian era, and I enjoyed expanding my knowledge from a very Burne-Jones centric angle to seeing the family as a wider whole. That said, certain sisters are definitely painted more clearly than others, Georgie and Alice in particular felt very clear whereas Agnes, Louise and particularly Edith do tend to disappear somewhat as the narrative progresses. Equally, some of the relatives like Edward Burne-Jones and Rudyard Kipling take the spotlight more as the text goes on and the sisters get more sidelined. Still, highly enjoyable way of whiling away the time!

[Michaellyn Martinez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with other reviews that this book was a grab bag of all the authors research. I was interested in the sisters, thinking they must be a fascinating group, but learned little about them, once they were married. Good general view of Victorian life.
Felt very sad for them, as they started out with talent and excitement, but were shunted off to the back round of their husbands and children. I guess I would have taken to my bed too - preferably with a large dose of laudanum!

[Shatterlings · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a history of a Victorian family but it’s not really about the sisters, 2 of them spent much of their time in bed too ill to care for their children but well enough to travel around Europe for a cure. There’s an awful lot about Rudyard Kipling, some about Stanley Baldwin and plenty about Edward Burne Jones. It’s interesting in places but not really what it says in the title.

[Stephanie Matthews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, amazing book about a fascinating family living in interesting times (and not in the Chinese sense). Worth reading if you like history generally, political history, literary history or art history - but you won't be disappointed by a Judith Flanders book anyway, so just go ahead and read it!

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting history of the McDonald family specifically 4 sisters, the families they married into and the middle / upper middle class life in Victorian times and the extraordinary children and husbands including Rudyard Kipling, Stanley Baldwin, Edward Poynter and Edward Burne-Jones.

[Hollie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for 7s although book discussion is postponed indefinitely. Mildly interesting book about sisters Alice Kipling, Georgiana Byrne-Jones, Agnes Poynter and Louisa Baldwin and domestic life in mid-late Victorian England.

[Beverly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a gem of a book. More than a "family" biography, it is loaded with information on the social history of Victorian times. The foot-notes alone are a delight.

[Brittany (Lady Red) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a slog even for someone who enjoys this type of thing. I’ve been researching the Victorians for 13 years and while I enjoyed it it was a bit of a slog even for me.

[Anita Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a bit slow to start but once I got into it, I really enjoyed it.