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Star of the Morning: The Life and Times of Lady Hester Stanhope
The dramatic story of Lady Hester Stanhope -- a wilful beauty turned bohemian adventurer -- who left England as a young woman, unashamedly enjoyed a string of lovers and established her own exotic fiefdom in the Lebanese mountains where she died in 1839. Ambitious, daring and uncompromising, Lady Hester Stanhope was never cut out for a conventional life. Born into an illustrious political dynasty, she played society hostess for her uncle, William Pitt the Younger. After his death, she struck out for unchartered territory, setting sail with her lover for the Mediterranean and Constantinople -- turning her back on England, as events would transpire, forever. It was in the Middle East, however, that she found her destiny. As the greatest female traveller of her age, she was the first western woman to cross the Syrian desert, where she was hailed by the Bedouin as their 'Star of the Morning'. From her labyrinthine fortress in the mountains of Lebanon, where she established what amounted to her own fiefdom, she exerted a canny influence over the region's devious politics.Hers was a life of adventure and intrigue -- yet in the years following her death her remarkable story has been largely dismissed, reworked by the Victorians into a cautionary tale for young women with wayward tendencies. This captivating biography, drawing on fresh research from three continents, resurrects Hester as the complex, courageous and fearless woman she was, bringing to life her hidden loves, friendships and ambitions. More than a mere traveller, here was a woman whose aspirations led her straight to the heart of the shadowy race for influence between the great powers of the nineteenth century -- a world of shifting alliances, double agents, romance, intrigue and murder. Above all, Lady Hester Stanhope was a woman driven by her desire to make a mark on the world, whose search for love and spiritual meaning in a war-torn Middle East provide an illuminating and moving parallel for our time.
388 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 6, 2016
In an era when women were still seen as property, to be passed from father to husband upon marriage, with very little recourse for independence or freedom, Lady Hester Stanhope chosen another path. She dared to be different. Granddaughter of the famous Pitt the Elder, adored niece of Pitt the Younger, she was headstrong and wilful from a very young age, and never altered or deviated from that in all her years. She never married, had numerous lovers, may well have given birth to or aborted a number of illegitimate children (nothing proven), travelled the world with a younger man as her lover for many years, before settling down in the Middle East and becoming a respected and mystical figure among the tribes of the Druze, Bedouin and others.
It's quite a life, especially when you compare it to contemporary women of her era, like Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, or Lady Worsley - scandalous figures in their own right but still operating very much within the conventions of the day and controlled, for better or worse, by the men in their lives. In comparison, Hester reminds me in many ways of Jane Digby, a woman who led a similar rebellious life, travelling the world, taking lovers as she pleased, falling in love with the Middle East and the Bedouin way of life. It's a shame their paths never crossed - Jane didn't venture into the Middle East until some fifteen years after Hester's death - as I think they would have been kindred spirits. Either that, or they would have hated each other!
I imagine a character like Hester would be a difficult subject for a biographer to capture - she must have been a woman of incredible charisma and strength of mind, to continue to attract younger men well into her sixties, to charm Middle Eastern sheikhs, to venture alone into dangerous, bandit-infested mountain regions, to remain in her own small fiefdom whilst a civil war raged around her. But Kirsten Ellis does her justice, capturing all the remarkable aspects of her personalities, both good and bad. I think Hester must have been an easy woman to admire but a difficult woman to like. Ellis manages to portray both sides of her personality here with real flair and talent.
As far as I can tell, this is the first straight historical biography Ellis has written, the other titles to her name being travel guides. I hope it's not the last.
It's quite a life, especially when you compare it to contemporary women of her era, like Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, or Lady Worsley - scandalous figures in their own right but still operating very much within the conventions of the day and controlled, for better or worse, by the men in their lives. In comparison, Hester reminds me in many ways of Jane Digby, a woman who led a similar rebellious life, travelling the world, taking lovers as she pleased, falling in love with the Middle East and the Bedouin way of life. It's a shame their paths never crossed - Jane didn't venture into the Middle East until some fifteen years after Hester's death - as I think they would have been kindred spirits. Either that, or they would have hated each other!
I imagine a character like Hester would be a difficult subject for a biographer to capture - she must have been a woman of incredible charisma and strength of mind, to continue to attract younger men well into her sixties, to charm Middle Eastern sheikhs, to venture alone into dangerous, bandit-infested mountain regions, to remain in her own small fiefdom whilst a civil war raged around her. But Kirsten Ellis does her justice, capturing all the remarkable aspects of her personalities, both good and bad. I think Hester must have been an easy woman to admire but a difficult woman to like. Ellis manages to portray both sides of her personality here with real flair and talent.
As far as I can tell, this is the first straight historical biography Ellis has written, the other titles to her name being travel guides. I hope it's not the last.
April 30, 2023
This is a biography of Lady Hester Stanhope. Not only was she an amazing woman but also she knew everybody there was to know in the Regency worlds of England and Lebanon. She was born into power and privilege, her father being an Earl and her grandfather being Pitt the Elder; after her uncle Pitt the Younger died she was granted a government pension of £1,200 (worth over £120,000 today). But she was also born a woman in a patriarchy where she couldn't even vote (although having lovers was very much less of a problem than it became in the more puritanical Victorian days; Hester had a number). She must have been very intrepid to travel abroad as she did into the Ottoman Empire which, despite its nominal unity, seemed to be composed of endlessly conflicting warlords and bandits. She suffered shipwreck and plague and was regularly exposed to risk (although we should realise that England pre-sanitation wasn't a very healthy place and life, especially for child-bearing women, was frequently cut short; furthermore, Hester didn't exactly travel solo but with guns and a retinue of servants including her own private doctor and she always ensured she had a male companion).
The book is brilliantly paced. Her early life in England fills the first quarter of the book, Egypt the second and Lebanon the third and fourth which are divided almost equally between her political machinations in the third quarter and her decline into religious madness in the fourth.
She went on a treasure hunt after finding a "curious manuscript" (the treasure chest turned out to be empty but she found a wonderful statue ... which she had smashed to pieces so she would leave no trace of her excavations). She was party to a plot to liberate Napoleon from exile in St Helena using a submarine. She described using a bezoar (a 'serpent stone') in an attempt to cure the plague and preparing Mandragora to be used as an aphrodisiac. She visited the city of Palmyra, the desert city of Queen Zenobia, later immortalised as Semiramis. She joined in with mystic rites in some of the sects whose beliefs fused Christianity, Judaism, Islam and more ancient tribal religions. She could have inspired the plot for a whole series of novels.
The only problem with this book was that I kept wanting to find out more about the other characters in the stellar cast list:
She acted as hostess for the unmarried Prime Minister Pitt the Younger, living with him in 10 Downing Street when he was PM and Walmer Castle when he wasn't.
Her father was an Earl, notorious for siding with the French revolutionaries. He became an eccentric inventor. Family life must have been difficult and all the kids had to escape when they got older (on one occasion using knotted sheets from their bedroom window), Hester's sister by eloping with the local apothecary.
Her brother, who became an heir, tried to adopt (perhaps because he fancied him) Kaspar Hauser, the 'wild boy' who may have been the heir to the Duke of Baden; he was granted guardianship; there are suggestions that he might have sought to send the boy abroad into Hester's custody and he was later accused of involvement in Kaspar's assassination./
Horne Tooke, a radical politician who spent time in the Tower accused of seditious treason
Richard Brothers, a crazed millennial prophet, who predicted that Hester would ride into Jerusalem as 'Queen of the Jews' in a sort of apocalyptic end-of-days scenario
Lord Byron, the poet, whom she met (with his Greek boyfriend) in Greece which he was trying to liberate
Among the men who were or might have been her lovers were
Sir John Moore, who died during the Peninsular campaign and is nowadays best remembered for a poem about his funeral
The Earl of Camelford, whose Scarlet Pimpernel type activities included an attempt to assassinate Napoleon
General Miranda, a South American revolutionary who liberated Venezuela with Bolivar
Michael Bruce, grandson of an explorer, who, after Hester, went on to smuggle a Bonapartist out of a France ruled by a restored (and vindictive) Bourbon government and spent time in a French jail for this
John Lewis Burckhardt, the man who rediscovered Petra
Vincent Boutin, archaologist and probably Napoleonic spy
Almaz, her Arab gardener
This is a well-written biography about an amazing woman. Why is it out of print?????
The book is brilliantly paced. Her early life in England fills the first quarter of the book, Egypt the second and Lebanon the third and fourth which are divided almost equally between her political machinations in the third quarter and her decline into religious madness in the fourth.
She went on a treasure hunt after finding a "curious manuscript" (the treasure chest turned out to be empty but she found a wonderful statue ... which she had smashed to pieces so she would leave no trace of her excavations). She was party to a plot to liberate Napoleon from exile in St Helena using a submarine. She described using a bezoar (a 'serpent stone') in an attempt to cure the plague and preparing Mandragora to be used as an aphrodisiac. She visited the city of Palmyra, the desert city of Queen Zenobia, later immortalised as Semiramis. She joined in with mystic rites in some of the sects whose beliefs fused Christianity, Judaism, Islam and more ancient tribal religions. She could have inspired the plot for a whole series of novels.
The only problem with this book was that I kept wanting to find out more about the other characters in the stellar cast list:
She acted as hostess for the unmarried Prime Minister Pitt the Younger, living with him in 10 Downing Street when he was PM and Walmer Castle when he wasn't.
Her father was an Earl, notorious for siding with the French revolutionaries. He became an eccentric inventor. Family life must have been difficult and all the kids had to escape when they got older (on one occasion using knotted sheets from their bedroom window), Hester's sister by eloping with the local apothecary.
Her brother, who became an heir, tried to adopt (perhaps because he fancied him) Kaspar Hauser, the 'wild boy' who may have been the heir to the Duke of Baden; he was granted guardianship; there are suggestions that he might have sought to send the boy abroad into Hester's custody and he was later accused of involvement in Kaspar's assassination./
Horne Tooke, a radical politician who spent time in the Tower accused of seditious treason
Richard Brothers, a crazed millennial prophet, who predicted that Hester would ride into Jerusalem as 'Queen of the Jews' in a sort of apocalyptic end-of-days scenario
Lord Byron, the poet, whom she met (with his Greek boyfriend) in Greece which he was trying to liberate
Among the men who were or might have been her lovers were
Sir John Moore, who died during the Peninsular campaign and is nowadays best remembered for a poem about his funeral
The Earl of Camelford, whose Scarlet Pimpernel type activities included an attempt to assassinate Napoleon
General Miranda, a South American revolutionary who liberated Venezuela with Bolivar
Michael Bruce, grandson of an explorer, who, after Hester, went on to smuggle a Bonapartist out of a France ruled by a restored (and vindictive) Bourbon government and spent time in a French jail for this
John Lewis Burckhardt, the man who rediscovered Petra
Vincent Boutin, archaologist and probably Napoleonic spy
Almaz, her Arab gardener
This is a well-written biography about an amazing woman. Why is it out of print?????
April 23, 2023
Ellis' biography of Lady Hester Stanhope focuses on Stanhope's upbringing and involvement especially in the political and military sphere of her time. This involvement becomes focused in the Middle East where she traveled as a young woman and then remained to her death. She had great friends and spheres of influence in British, French, and Arabic circles and worked to gain great intelligence information which she could share as she saw fit for her own plans and in support of Britain. Despite her own financial struggles she came to the aid of many who were caught in the local wars and power plays. Her personal life -- relations with her family, especially her brothers, and lovers in her life -- is presented as private nearly as an aside to her political/intelligence involvements. While she is noted for her knowledge of Arabic, Middle Eastern culture, interest in religion/spirituality, and interest in gardening, there is no sense of how these aspects developed or what influenced her. No details are given from which to have a fuller sense of her life or her self. Thus, the biography nearly reads like a list and may seem tiresome.
The book does instill a strong sense of how Lady Stanhope was enmeshed in her Middle Eastern locale which is a side story to the long war between Britian and France.
Overall, the book has a hard character to it, balancing different aspects of Lady Stanhope's life. Much of the original correspondence and other writings that might provide more and fuller details were burned during her lifetime, after her death, and later by family who did not want things known. So, this biography seems a decent and fair portrayal of Lady Stanhope's life and aspirations.
The book contains a list of illustrations, a family tree, maps, a Prologue, 22 chapters (divided into sections), two sections of photos mostly of paintings of people in the book, an Epilogue, a Bibliography, a section of Notes, an Acknowledgements section, and an Inex.
The book does instill a strong sense of how Lady Stanhope was enmeshed in her Middle Eastern locale which is a side story to the long war between Britian and France.
Overall, the book has a hard character to it, balancing different aspects of Lady Stanhope's life. Much of the original correspondence and other writings that might provide more and fuller details were burned during her lifetime, after her death, and later by family who did not want things known. So, this biography seems a decent and fair portrayal of Lady Stanhope's life and aspirations.
The book contains a list of illustrations, a family tree, maps, a Prologue, 22 chapters (divided into sections), two sections of photos mostly of paintings of people in the book, an Epilogue, a Bibliography, a section of Notes, an Acknowledgements section, and an Inex.
January 8, 2025
Fascinating! True life stories can be better than fiction, especially if written in an entertaining, readable way and this was. It was historical, about an amazing woman I’d never heard of, with loads of people in it I knew nothing about, centered mostly in the Middle East with names and languages I could hardly pronounce. But, it was well presented and an easy enough read to keep me interested through to the end. Its subtitle says it all- The Extraordinary Life of Lady Hester Stanhope.
August 13, 2020
The investigation in to the life of Lady Hester Stanhope, wealthy English aristocrat, adventurous and demanding. Brings to life the history of England at the time of Pitt the prime minister, to the internecine intrigue of middle east culture and politics where she ended up.
December 29, 2020
This should have been a great read but was somehow taken over by politics. While some politics was inevitable after all Hester's grandfather was William Pitt the elder and her uncle was William Pitt the younger, Ms Ellis peppered her whole book with politics and Hester herself got lost in all of it. Disappointing read.
May 10, 2022
An amazing amount of research went into this book about an amazing women. I learned alot. Highly recommended.
April 14, 2025
fascinating read about an amazing lady
August 28, 2019
Lady Hester Stanhope was a bold adventuress, who lived life on her own terms. As a great traveller she sampled a life that was very different from other aristocratic English women of her time. She lived and she loved with great passion and she could have invented the word 'networking'. I absolutely loved this book.
September 30, 2013
Already out of print, and hard to get a copy of, this gem of a biography is expansive even though it may have been a little one sided. Lady Hester enthralled me, and the writing was engaging and interesting. Stanhope becomes a lost figure in history, may have been larger in her own mind than historians will give her credit for, but she appears to have secret dealings in major turning points of history. And quite a few of them. I really enjoyed living with her in early 1800's Middle East, but her personal life in England was just as scandlizing and fun. She is a bizarre mix of wondering if all this could be true and I really want to believe it all happened. Slow at times, packed with some superfluous info, but well worth the total package!
September 6, 2012
A fascinating portrait of an aristocratic woman who lived ahead of her times in Britain and mostly in the Middle East (Lebanon). The biography is meticulously researched, amazing photographs, and brings to life Lady Hester in all her eccentric glory.
December 5, 2010
just purchased. amazon brought it up when i bought jane digby book. looks interesting...
August 21, 2013
Wow, what a life she lived! A great read.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews