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The Randolph Women and their Men Reviewed By Mary Lignor of Bookpleasures.com
- By Mary Lignor
- Published June 28, 2010
- Biographies & Memoirs
Mary Lignor
Reviewer Mary Lignor: Mary is a retired librarian, originally from Connecticut but now living in New Mexico. All her life Mary has loved books and has passed this love on to her daughters. Mary started working in a library when her children were young as an Assistant Librarian and ended up as its Director. Her favorite books are suspense, political intrigue and anything involving the World War II era.
Author: Ruth
Doumlele
ISBN: 978-1-935359-25-8
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This is an
extraordinary book!!! I can't think of enough adjectives to
describe the moments I spent reading The Randolph Women and their
Men. It's just exceptional.
I usually don't read a
lot of biographies but, this book was so well researched, and
included the lives of so many famous and infamous people who lived in
the time of this narrative, that I couldn't put it down. Even
though the Randolph family members are the real stars of the story,
they consort with influential people such as Thomas Jefferson, John
Adams, and James Madison. The author brings these people to
life brilliantly. The riotous times that were had in this era
(late 1700's - early 1800's) were so much fun to read, and gives
a great look at all the witty and clever Randolph women and their
privileged lives – that weren't all that private at times.
These lives were subjected to disloyalty, love that was certainly
not returned by their men, and worse. This book sets forth the
intriguing and sometimes revolting details of these brave women and
their men. I use the adjective BRAVE, because these wonderful women
were trained very early on to be mistresses of their husbands’
plantations, take care of the sick (both family and slaves), keep the
books, and write numerous letters to keep in contact with family and
friends. Women were married off very young, not having a very
long courtship time. Southern men expected their women to be
good at home management, always gracious to guests and, of course, to
have many children. Although this book was mainly about the
women, the men didn't come off looking too good, at least to me.
They traveled, made speeches, made believe they ran the properties,
but the women really did most of that while the men just chased other
women. I really admired these women and felt a little sorry for
them at the same time.
I highly recommend this book to
all readers, not just biography readers. The story reads much
like fiction and the narrative is quick and interesting. As far
as I'm concerned, after reading The Randolph Women, you can
forget The Desperate Housewives, The Real Housewives of New York, New
Jersey, etc. and the laughable Kardashians, because the Randolph
Women are definitely the REAL HOUSEWIVES. Hats off to Ruth
Doumlele, and thanks fora great read.