| Reviews
Admiral Lord Nelson: Context
and Legacy
John
Brewer in The New York Review of Books, 3 November 2005
‘Two fine essays in Admiral Lord Nelson: Context
and Legacy – Kathleen Wilson’s “Nelson
and the People” and Kate Williams’s “Nelson
and Women” – make clear that Nelson’s
reputation as a man of feeling gave a popular edge to his
promotion as a military hero…..No doubt there were
many who enjoyed the scandal that surrounded the widely
known affair, and, as Kate Williams shows, there were plenty
of novels in which Nelson and Emma were portrayed not as
adulterers but as enjoying “the ultimate sentimental
romance.”
Isaac Land in the London Review of Books, 1 December 2005
‘
The essays in David Cannadine’s selection illustrate
the many ways that Nelson-worship served the war effort…Kate
Williams explores another dimension of populism: the marketing
of Nelson to women. The outpouring of Nelson jewellery
and decorative memorabilia offered a patriotic equivalent
to tricolour cockades. The affair with Emma Hamilton seems
to have enhanced his appeal as the object of erotic fantasies.
A character in Vanity Fair remarks: ‘That was the
most beautiful part of dear Lord Nelson’s character…He
went to the deuce for a woman. There must be good in a
man who will do that’
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