Blenheim: Biography of a Palace - Softcover

Fowler, Marian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140106170 ISBN 13: 9780140106176

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1991

Synopsis

This is a history of a great English house, from its conception and building in the opening decade of the 18th century, to the burial of Winston Churchill in the early 1960s. Using the vast Blenheim papers (now in the British Library), together with local Oxfordshire documents and archives, the author has been able to trace the history, not just of its famous inhabitants, but also of the building itself and the thousands of servants and workmen who have kept it functioning over the years. The four main chapters each take a specific event at Blenheim - the first centres on a performance of a Dryden play, put on by the grandchildren of the almost senile first Duke of Marlborough and moving out from that, to a general description of the place and its inhabitants at that time.

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Construction began in 1702 on this Oxfordshire mansion, a gift from Queen Anne to a victor at the Battle of Blenheim and the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. Fowler comprehensively details the often scandalous behavior of the spectacular landmark's occupants as well as its physical features and crippling maintenance costs. "Each chapter in the portrait is engrossing," said PW. Illustrated.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0140106170
• ISBN 13: 9780140106176
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272