| Edition |
First U.S. edition. |
| Description |
xxx, 354 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map, genealogical tables ; 24 cm |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Note(S) |
Originally published as "Devices and Desires" in Great Britain in 2018 by Chatto & Windus, an imprint of Vintage. |
| Summary |
"The remarkable story of Bess of Hardwick, her ascent through Elizabethan society and the houses she built that shaped British architectural history. Born in 1521, Bess of Hardwick, property tycoon, businesswoman, money-lender and four-times wife, lived an astonishing eighty-seven years. Through canny choices and a will of steel she rose from country squire's daughter to Dowager Countess, establishing herself as one of the richest and most powerful women in England, second only to Queen Elizabeth. Bess forged her way, not merely by a judicious choice of husbands, but by shrewd exploitation of whatever assets those husbands brought her. At a time when women were legally and financially subordinate to their husbands, Bess succeeded in manipulating hers to her own, and her children's, advantage, accumulating great riches and estates in the process. But her greatest passion was for building and Bess kept a beady eye on every stage of the creation of her four houses. Hardwick New Hall, her sole surviving building, is stamped all over with Bess's identity and her initials, both outside and in. Hardwick is a celebration of one woman's triumphant progress through Elizabethan England. In this new biography, Kate Hubbard examines Bess's life as a builder within the context of the Elizabethan building world, dominated as it was by men. Devices and Desires traces the building of Hardwick, but also of other houses that Bess knew, visited and coveted; Longleat, Holdenby, Theobalds. Throughout, it seeks to locate Bess within Hardwick, the lasting monument she left behind her."-- Provided by publisher. |
| Contents |
Prologue: Hardwick Hall, 1590 -- Derbyshire beginnings -- Sir William Cavendish -- Acquisition -- "Every man almost is a builder" -- "My honest swete Chatesworth" -- "This devil's devices" -- Countess of Shrewsbury -- The Scots Queen -- A dubious honour -- "Close dealing" -- "Great turmoil doth two houses breed" -- "The old song" -- "Send me accres" -- "Civil wars" -- Mocking and mowing -- The old hall -- Smythson's Platt -- London, 1591 -- "More glass than wall" -- "Houshold stuff" -- "A scribbling melancholy" -- "It doth stick sore in her teeth" -- "Not over sumptuous" -- Afterword: Hardwick Post Bess. |
| Subject |
Shrewsbury, Elizabeth Hardwick Talbot, Countess of, 1527?-1608.
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| Subject(S) |
Countesses -- England -- Biography.
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Nobility -- Great Britain -- Biography.
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Women landowners -- Great Britain -- Biography.
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Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Biography.
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Biographies.
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| Added Title |
Bess of Hardwick and the building of Elizabethan England |
| ISBN |
9780062302991 (hardcover) |
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006230299X (hardcover) |
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Other Resources
