"That Hamilton Woman: Emma and Nelson" Topic

"Emma Hamilton, much maligned by her contemporaries and later by historians and commentators, rose from the most humble beginnings to play a startling role in Britain's naval victory over France and Spain in 1805. In this new book Barry Gough, employing the letters between the protagonists, and the unpublished examination of her career by famed American historian of the Royal Navy Arthur Marder, strongly defends Emma. He shows how this most talented of women and the beauty of her age fell victim to innuendo, slander and cruel caricature. She was to die in poverty in Calais in 1815, just months before Napoleon's final defeat. England's greatest sailor fell deeply in love with Emma in the years before Trafalgar. This, together with his quest for glory and victory entangled him in an inescapable web of circumstances and calumny. The author explores the evolving scandal, the high political stakes that were involved, and the love affair itself which so influenced the fortunes of England's glory and the fate of her Wooden Walls. No novelist could have created such a tortuous scenario, charged as it was with high emotions, slurs, insults and slander.Richly illustrated throughout, the book shows Emma, probably the most painted woman of her age, in all her glories; it also shows how heartlessly caricaturists treated her. 'That Hamilton woman' will long remain a controversial figure but here the author places her as one of the forces that gave the Royal Navy its will to fight and conquer. He depicts sympathetically a woman entrapped in circumstances of her own making, her saga reminding us of how frail is human fortune."

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Amicalement
Armand

I know they made a good movie on this subject back in the Golden Age of Hollywood. I'm surprised they haven't done a remake. Seriously, if they play it like Titanic: solid action sequences along with a stirring, torrid romance they should have a HUGE success. I'd go see it.

Yes, me too.

Saw a portrait of her at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NYC) recently that didn't mention Nelson. Strange, since many of the French portraits had notes that mentioned who was who's mistress, etc.

Even counting the portrait being favorable, it was apparent what Nelson saw.

Me also!…

Amicalement
Armand

Not in this world…

History has not been taught in American schools for several decades. There is consequently faint hope that the average movie-goer, or museum visitor for that matter, would have the least inkling who Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton were or what their connection was.

Sad, but unfortunately true.

B

In the 1970s a film on the subject "Bequest to the Nation" (released in the US as "The Nelson Affair") was released. "That Hamilton Woman" was released. "Emma and Nelson" has been under development since 2014. Two silent films on the subject were made as well. So in 90 some years 4 movies were made and 1 is being worked on, that's a pretty solid representation on the silver screen.

Tom Bryant:
If you mean the Olivier-Leigh version that was a British film.