Mary Curzon

by Nigel Nicolson

The story of the heiress from Chicago who married Lord Curzon, Viceroy of India.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

227 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1977

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read "Mary Curzon" to find out more about George Curzon's world into which my 4th cousin, Grace Hinds, married. Both Mary Leiter Curzon (George’s first wife and heiress to one of the founders of Marshall Field of Chicago) and Grace Hinds (his second wife and heiress of Alfredo Duggan, an Argentine-Irish cattle baron) were Americans. Both were very beautiful and possessed qualities, including wealth, that supported Curzon in his ambitions as a superior statesman and politician in the United Kingdom. In consequence, they witnessed the struggles and the waning of the British Empire as well as the emergence of nations such as India and Jordan. Their stories are George Curzon’s story.

Mary was very close with her father, Levi Leiter. (He was not Jewish as one might suppose, but Swiss-German.) Mary was close to her mother as well. Mary was very concerned with the plight of India as a nation and was highly esteemed by Indians and British expatriates. Toning down Curzon's apparent sharpness and seeming arrogance she had made one of her main missions in life. She was oil on the waters in the conflict between Kitchener and Curzon, and the same with others who deemed Curzon their enemy.

If you watched the television series “Downton Abbey”, which purportedly drew from Curzon’s life and his estate, Kedleston, among others, you are able to get a better sense of how Mary and Grace lived. You might refer to my Goodreads.com reviews of “Reminiscences” by Grace Hinds Curzon, “George Curzon” by David Gilmour, in addition to this one. I intend to read more about the Curzon family and Grace Hinds’ children by her first husband Alfredo Duggan, who had died leaving Grace a widow. I intend to extend my study of Curzon now that I have read his biography, Mary’s, and Grace’s. Curzon’s three daughters, whose lives became entangled with prominent personages of World War II, including Winston Churchill who appears throughout these biographies, Goebbels, Hitler, and others will be my next target.

Nigel Nicolson, Mary’s biographer, is a crisp recorder of her complicated life—her joy and her suffering; but he also explains from his perspective George Curzon, a complicated man if there ever was one. Nicolson is the son of famous authors, Sir Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West. Because of Nigel’s clear abilities as a writer, I intend also to read some more of his works and some of the works by his parents. Nigel Nicolson is a pleasure to read.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the subject of the book was an interesting woman who is still talked of today, the actual writing of the book fell a bit flat. In places, it was actually boring, and I found myself struggling to get through it.

One of the things I enjoyed in the book was reading the love story of George and Mary. There is even a sweet poem composed by George for Mary included in the book.

Unless you are a hardcore Curzon fan, give this one a pass.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming little book on a charming lady - the American heiress who married George Curzon and became Vicereine in India, the highest post in the country ever bestowed on an American. It is not a big book, it is not that many pages and it is not written to reveal some new, big secrets about the lady (if there are any, they're not uncovered here - but then again it's not that type of book). The book was published in 1977 and perhaps aimed for an audience who was more aware of who George Curzon was and who could therefore be interested in his first wife (she died young, leaving behind three young daughters - of course he remarried, though he did not do so immediately).

The book is well researched, Nicolson clearly states when there are things he does not know and therefore has to guess (which he underlines early on in the book that he will do, too), but he does not do so more than any biographer and his conjectures are well-founded and well-argued and when there are things you cannot make intelligent guesses about he is not tempted to try anyway, but leaves the matter alone.

Perhaps not a book for everyone - but I loved it.

[Kimberly Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mary Curzon, daughter to one of the men that started Marshall Fields, was a young heiress that went to England and married into society.

Although Almina de Rothschild was the true mistress of Highclere castle (Downton Abbey), it was Mary Curzon that Lady Cora Grantham was modeled after...

I'd go on, but I can't; the author, Nigel Nicholson, son of Vita Sackville-West [don't you know] & Harold Nicholson wrote an incredibly boring and erudite account of Mary Curzon's life... written as only a scholarly man could/would...

I really didn't care for all the minutia it was dry... I wanted to know about Mary Curzon as a real person, not a historical figure...

Pffft!

[Martha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although this was a very readable book - I didn't want not to finish it - I kept thinking when will she do something to warrant a book. She was a famous American Deb who married an Englishman who would become Viceroy of India but nothing much is said of her in India save that she was not very bright, that she was fiercely loyal to her husband and that her undying devotion was a prop for him during troubled times. The book is dedicated to her daughter (who was only two when her mother died) whom Nicolson said was the inspiration for the book. Is that the real story?

[Mandy Partridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nigel Nicolson has written an academic style biography of Mary Leiter Curzon, and her ruling class travels from Chicago and Washington to London, then Calcutta, Delhi and Simla.
Photographs show that Mary was the belle of the debutante ball, and her wealthy parents arranged to have her presented to society in both Washington and London.
You've heard of the trend for impoverished British noblemen marrying "new money" American beauties? Mary Leiter and Lord George Curzon started this trend, which would be followed, even by the Kennedys.
Life as the Vicereine of imperial India sounds incredibly lavish, special copies of the crown jewels were made for the Delhi Durbar, and the nobles all rode elaborate elephant-mounted sedans. Yet Mary Curzon could see the poverty of the Indians, and the various types of religious, class and caste discriminations at play. She used her diplomatic skills to soften her husband's hard-line colonial white supremacist views.
Descriptions of the discrepancy in wealth, from hoards of emeralds, rubies and diamond, to naked beggars on the street, made me feel ill.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Leiter was the daughter of Levi Leiter, of Field & Leiter, later Marshall Field's. In gilded age Chicago, they were one of the leading families.

In the late 1800s, Mary married George Curzon, the Viceroy of India and became Vicereine during the height of British empire.

This was a garage-sale find, maybe not even in print anymore, but I found the descriptions of early Chicago, colonial India, and later London, fascinating.

[Rebecca Fieler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the topic was interesting enough, the book fell more and more into big swatches of quotes and letters. By the last couple of chapters, I was skimming rather than reading.