Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Actress and the Prince by Claire Tomalin

From the Publisher

On the London stage in the late eighteenth century, Dora Jordan was a star, probably the greatest comic actress the British theatre has ever known. Seductive and vivacious, as delightful off-stage as on, she was adored by the public and high society alike. Then, in 1791, she attracted the attentions of Prince William, the Duke of Clarence, third son of King George III, who eventually prevailed upon her to live with him. For more than twenty years, in spite of the attacks of caricaturists and satirists, she was a loyal and loving mate, bearing him ten children, helping to pay his debts out of her earnings as an actress, acting for all intents and purposes as his wife. Under pressure from the royal family and moved by his own ambitions, William abandoned her. For Dora, thrown out of her house, estranged from her children, it was a disaster; she was to die in poverty and loneliness in 1816. And while William evidently regretted the loss of the happiness he had known with her, he went on to marry a German princess and take the throne as King William IV in 1830. When his biography was published in 1884, Dora's name did not even appear in it. Claire Tomalin has here retrieved from obscurity a fascinating and important figure. She also offers us insight into an era. For Dora Jordan's tragedy, growing as it did out of the collision and interweaving of two worlds - the rough and colorful world of the Georgian theatre where she was at home, and the glittering world of the court and the aristocracy, increasingly shadowed by the pall of convention that would define Victoria's reign - is a vivid reflection of historical change.

Publishers Weekly

Acclaimed as the greatest British comic actress of her day, spirited, tough, intelligent Dora Jordan (1761-1816) scandalized polite society when she, a former Dublin milliner's assistant, shacked up with royalty. Boisterous, uncouth navy veteran Prince William, son of King George III, fell passionately in love with Jordan and settled down with her, unmarried, in a villa on the Thames provided by the royal family. The prince (who became King William IV in 1830) had 10 children with Jordan over 20 years, but ditched her in 1812 under pressure from his advisers. Tomalin, author of The Invisible Woman, a prize-winning biography of actress Nelly Ternan, Charles Dickens's secret mistress, has written a captivating, vibrant biography of a strong, self-willed woman that explores the seductive overlapping of the theatrical world and the worlds of politics, high society and royalty. Tomalin deftly unravels Jordan's long, stormy relationship with her employer, playwright/producer/politician Richard Brinsley Sheridan, her maternal devotion to her children and her tormented relations with the royal family. Illustrated. (Apr.)

Library Journal

Tomalin presents a sympathetically and painstaking docubiography of Dora Jordan (1761-1816), one of the most acclaimed British comic and comi-tragedy actresses of her day, rivaled in abilty only by Mrs. Siddons. Dora's talent, industry, generosity, and loving nature formed her tragic flaw; illegitimate herself, powerlessly taken advantage of by men of higher social status, she attracted Prince William, who became Duke of Clarence, and lived with him as surrogate spouse through 20 years and ten children. Her earnings as an actress staunched his debts. He abandoned her to make a royal marriage, leaving her in poverty and illness in France, where she had fled to avoid debtors' prison for her son-in-law's debts. Upon becoming King William IV in 1830, one of his first acts was to commission a statue of her. Of interest to theater history, women's studies, and culture studies.-Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Univ. of Binghamton, N.Y.

BookList

Distinguished biographer Tomalin traverses an interesting juncture of British theatrical and political history by providing a substantial biography of the famous eighteenth-century actress, Mrs. Jordan, who was also the mistress of the third son of King George III, living openly with him for 20 years and supplying him with 10 illegitimate children. Based largely on Mrs. Jordan's letters, this admirably researched and presented biography limns a life Tomalin admires: an "unmarried working mother," who picked herself up from provincial poverty to enjoy fame on the London stage and association with royalty without ever losing the naturalness that made her such an attractive person. The domestic bliss she shared for so long with Prince William, duke of Clarence (and eventually king as William IV), was shabbily brought to a halt when His Royal Highness, compelled by the rest of the royal family to form a legal union with a suitable (royal, that is) woman, chucked Mrs. Jordan completely, leaving her to die ultimately in despair. Mrs. Jordan is a very worthy subject for such a worthwhile biography as this.

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