Who was Lola Montez?
Lola Montez (also known as Eliza Gilbert)was one of the first global celebrities, perhaps the 19th Century’s most notorious woman.
She created reams of newsprint with her scandalous behaviour all the way from the hill stations of British India to the stages of London, Paris and Warsaw. She stormed her way through the royal bedrooms of Europe, bringing down a King in the process.
During the Gold Rushes in California and Australia she became the pin-up girl of miners with her erotic “spider dance” and her antics whipping unscrupulous newspaper editors.
Then one night on a ship in the Pacific Ocean an event would take place that would change her forever.
This biographical novel explores both the public and private sides of this infamous woman and seeks to find reasons for her behaviour that may have had its origins in childhood neglect and a disastrous first marriage that locked her into actions from which there was no escape.
Alexandre Dumas said she had “the fatal touch” when it came to men. So why did so many of them become her victims? And which man, above all others, held her heart?
Lola is mostly remembered for her outrageousness; for her lies and fantasies, her fiery temper and shameless conduct. Rarely credited for her acute intelligence, she had many other qualities that today would be admired rather than despised, such as her hatred of racial intolerance and championship of national freedom, her aversion to religious influence in governments and her support of the disenfranchised.
She was a contradiction; a puzzle; endlessly fascinating, she truly was one of a kind.
She created reams of newsprint with her scandalous behaviour all the way from the hill stations of British India to the stages of London, Paris and Warsaw. She stormed her way through the royal bedrooms of Europe, bringing down a King in the process.
During the Gold Rushes in California and Australia she became the pin-up girl of miners with her erotic “spider dance” and her antics whipping unscrupulous newspaper editors.
Then one night on a ship in the Pacific Ocean an event would take place that would change her forever.
This biographical novel explores both the public and private sides of this infamous woman and seeks to find reasons for her behaviour that may have had its origins in childhood neglect and a disastrous first marriage that locked her into actions from which there was no escape.
Alexandre Dumas said she had “the fatal touch” when it came to men. So why did so many of them become her victims? And which man, above all others, held her heart?
Lola is mostly remembered for her outrageousness; for her lies and fantasies, her fiery temper and shameless conduct. Rarely credited for her acute intelligence, she had many other qualities that today would be admired rather than despised, such as her hatred of racial intolerance and championship of national freedom, her aversion to religious influence in governments and her support of the disenfranchised.
She was a contradiction; a puzzle; endlessly fascinating, she truly was one of a kind.