Margaret Trouncer (1903–1982)

I 'saved' this biography from weeded library stock, so I can't really complain, but I'm glad times - and styles - have moved on. Margaret Trouncer obviously knew her stuff, yet she writes like Baroness Orczy! Her brief study of Recamier is full of flowery descriptions - 'Her bosom was a sculptor's dream. Her face had the oval line of Raphael's Madonnas' - whimsical asides and exclamation points. Also, there seems to be more in here about Chateaubriand, Recamier's lover, than the woman herself, which is fair enough, I suppose - Juliette's enduring legacy is a painting of a woman draped artfully over a chaise-longue - but still a bit of a cheat. Basically, Madame Recamier was a beautiful society hostess who married an older man, attracted scores of powerful and talented admirers, was good friends with Germaine de Stael, had a lifelong, on-off dalliance with Chateaubriand, and is immortalised on canvas. And there you have it - Margaret Trouncer's biography without all the clutter.… (meer)