Darling Georgie: The Enigma of King George V - Hardcover

Friedman, Dennis

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9780720610710: Darling Georgie: The Enigma of King George V

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0720610710 ISBN 13: 9780720610710

Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd, 1998

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History depicts King George V as a model husband, a near-perfect father, and a self-confident monarch. Dr. Freidman's insightful study of his personal life reveals a very different picture. Freidman persuasively argues that the psychologically damaging upbringing to which Georgie was subjected profoundly affected his later life and that the effects of this are still evident in today's Royal Family. A suffocating relationship with his mother, Princess Alexandra, compounded by the absence and neglect of his father, caused him to suffer extreme separation anxiety as a child, which was reinforced by his being sent away to boarding school at the age of eleven and then into the Navy.

Friedman examines the effects of this rigid and traditional royal upbringing on his sexual development, on his marriage to Princess Mary of Teck (later Queen Mary), and on his subsequent years on the throne: "Is the real George the tormented man who concealed his true self -- or the right-minded monarch whose misguided attempts to make 'men' of his sons David (Edward VIII) and Bertie (George VI) sowed the seeds not only of their unhappiness but of the catastrophic misalliance of Prince Charles and Princess Diana?"

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From the Inside Flap:

DENNIS FRIEDMAN, psychiatrist and author of Inheritance: A Psychological History of the Royal Family, turns his acute gaze on our present Queen's grandfather, King George V (1865-1936), to take a closer look at the man behind the monarch. Taking as his starting point the widely held belief that the personality and behaviour of parents and grandparents have a powerful influence on the children and grandchildren -- and even great-grandchildren -- Dr Friedman's insightful biography persuasively argues that the psychologically damaging upbringing to which George was subjected profoundly affected his later life and that the effects of this are still evident in today's Royal Family.

A suffocating relationship with his mother, Princess Alexandra, compounded by the absence and neglect of his father, caused him to suffer extreme separation anxiety as a child, which was reinforced by his being sent away to boarding school at the age of eleven and then into the Navy. The author examines the effects of this rigid and traditional royal upbringing on his sexual development, on his marriage to Princess May of Teck (later Queen Mary) and on his subsequent years on the throne.

History depicts George V as a model husband, a near-perfect father and a self-confident monarch. Dr Friedman's study of his personal life reveals a very different picture.

From Library Journal:

Psychiatrist Friedman (Inheritance: A Psychological History of the Royal Family, 1993. o.p.) looks at the life of King George V by analyzing his upbringing. Any reader of British royal biographies will already be familiar with most of what Friedman discusses. The king's extraordinarily close relationship with his "Motherdear," Alexandra; his respect for his often absent father, the philanderer Edward VII; and his private education with only his older, slower brother Prince Eddy for companionship have been analyzed before. With little new to add, Friedman often repeats facts and occasionally contradicts himself (he mentions a famous scandal involving Prince Eddy's being caught in a raid on a homosexual brothel, stating that George seemed to be unaware of his brother's involvement, yet a mere ten pages later he writes that "nothing had horrified him more than the revelation of his brother's homosexuality at the time of the Cleveland Street scandal"). Readers will be better served by Kenneth Rose's King George V (LJ 2/15/84). Friedman's work is recommended only for libraries that collect everything on the British Royal family.AElizabeth Mellett, Brookline P.L., MA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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