Hugo Vickers’ biography The Sphinx is the life story of Gladys Deacon, who became Duchess of Marlborough. She was born at the end of the nineteenth century and lived long enough into the twentieth that the author knew her and interviewed her many times for this book, although he does point out that she was very unreliable. I like biographies and have read at least one other by this author so, at some time in the past, I purchased this book second-hand and then forgot all about it. I unearthed it for this challenge.
Gladys Deacon was renowned for being a beauty of her age, although she found imperfections in her face which resulted in a bodged job to fix them that left her beauty impaired. She was intelligent and came from a wealthy American family who settled in Paris and then in London. She spoke several languages and collected art. She attracted many suitors but fell for the married Duke at an early age and eventually married him when she was forty.
Her life was marred by bad decisions and difficult events. A brother died young. Her parents lived separate lives and when she was twelve years old her father shot and killed her mother’s lover in France, later being admitted to, and dying in, a mental institution. Her mother was unreliable and continually in debt, and she had a poor relationship with her sisters. She had a number of lovers but no true love except for the Duke. Her marriage to him, when it eventually occurred, was very unhappy and ended in an acrimonious divorce. She was known as an habitual liar and fantasist. In later life she became so eccentric that her family, possibly in an effort to get hold of her assets, had her committed to a mental institution against her will where she lived for many years and where she eventually died.
This book is as much a work of social history as biography and it offers an insight into the world of society at the time. It was an environment where adultery was rife and people frequently fell in and out of love with each other. These were the elite – Gladys thought that the worst insult was to call someone “middle class”. Gladys never worked and nor did most of her friends, other than to manage their wealth and estates. They all delayed and often refused payment for goods and services, thinking that their station in life meant that they could do as they wished. Gladys’ life appeared to be one of moving from one holiday or party to another. Her beauty was much more important to her, and to others, than her intelligence.
This is the biography of a very troubled woman who lived a very superficial life, in which she could trust no one. It’s quite sad in a lot of ways but also a difficult thing to admire because neither she, nor anyone else in the book, seemed to contribute anything to the world as a whole. It’s interesting, but like reading fantasy in places because this life is so different from my own. I am convinced that, should I ever have met Gladys, I should have disliked her intensely.
I am glad that I read this book. It is well researched, although there are a lot more names and people than I could easily keep track of when reading. I shall shelve it with my collection of biographies.
Anne Is Reading 