More "Downton Abbey" Reading

Today’s New York Times ran a piece about publishers capitalizing on the “Downton Abbey” craze. I’ve already posted about my improbable connection to “Downton.” If you’re one of the elect who possesses a copy of the seminal work To Marry an English Lord, you’ve got this list at your finger tips (page 367). If not — here goes! A partial list of Further Reading for those who can’t get enough. (Because, I have to tell you, that Cannadine book the Times mentions is really good, but it’s pretty heavy lifting.) Here are some suggestions: what am I missing? Most of these are out of print, but who knows? That could change…

Sargent's 1914 portrait of Lord Curzon. Doesn't he remind you of Lord Grantham?

FICTION

Henry James, The Golden Bowl, The Portrait of a Lady, The Wings of the Dove 

Vita Sackville-West, The Edwardians

Anthony Trollope, The Duke’s Children

Edith Wharton, The Buccaneers (unfinished, but compelling, and based on three American women of the 1870s who married titled Englishmen)

NONFICTION

Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, The Glitter and the Gold (about one of the legendary & unhappy Anglo-American matches)

Elizabeth Anne Coleman, The Opulent Era: Fashions of Worth, Doucet, and Pingat (helps explain why the Dowager Countess dresses as she does)

Mark Girouard, Life in the English Country House

Robert Lacey, Aristocrats (1980s update)

Ralph G. Martin, Jennie: The Life of Lady Randolph Churchill Vols. 1 & 2 

Nancy Mitford, Noblesse Oblige

Nigel Nicolson, Mary Curzon, Portrait of a Marriage 

Hugo Vickers, Gladys, Duchess of Marlborough

Simon Winchester, Their Noble Lordships