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Wallis In Love: The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy

 

Summary (from the publisher): "You have no idea how hard it is to live out a great romance." -- Wallis Simpson

Before she became known as the woman who enticed a king from his throne and birthright, Bessie Wallis Warfield was a prudish and particular girl from Baltimore. At turns imaginative, ambitious, and spoiled, Wallis's first words as recalled by her family were "me, me." From that young age, she was in want of nothing but stability, status, and social acceptance as she fought to climb the social ladder and take her place in London society. As irony would have it, she would gain the love and devotion of a king, but only at the cost of his throne and her reputation.

In Wallis in Love, acclaimed biographer Andrew Morton offers a fresh portrait of Wallis Simpson in all her vibrancy and brazenness as she transformed from a hard-nosed gold-digger to charming chatelaine. Using diary entries, letters, and other never-before-seen records, Morton takes us through Wallis's romantic adventures in Washington, China, and her entrance into the strange wonderland that is London society. During her journey, we meet an extraordinary array of characters, many of whom smoothed the way for her dalliance with the king of England, Edward VIII.

Wallis in Love goes beyond Wallis's infamous persona and reveals a complex, domineering woman striving to determine her own fate and grapple with matters of the heart.

Review: This is a biography of the twice-divorced American who changed the history of the British monarchy. Wallis Simpson was born in 1896 as Bessie Wallis Warfield. Sadly, her father died just weeks after she was born and she grew up in relative luxury but always at the mercy of her rich relatives' handouts. Seemingly dissatisfied with her lot from birth, Wallis was restless and a natural social climber, charming those she came in contact with, but lazy behind the scenes. She married impulsively and very young to Lieutenant Earl Win Spencer, one of the first ever Navy pilots, who were viewed as extremely glamorous. The marriage quickly soured and he later granted her a divorce. After her divorce, she became part of the 'it' society in Washington. Stylish and vivacious, she made herself into the social inner circle of wherever she lived. It was her second husband, Ernest Simpson, that brought her to England and into the presence of the then Prince of Wales who was to become, for a very brief time, King Edward VIII. Dazzled by his status as the heir to the throne, she was drawn ever closer, yet her love interest saw in Wallis an excuse to give up the crown that he had never wanted. Her divorced status, which would never be accepted as a spouse to the heir to the throne, was the perfect out. 

Although Wallis has gone down in history as half of a great love story, a love so powerful that he gave up his crown for her, Morton makes it clear that Wallis wanted no part of David's plans to abdicate. She constantly warned him against it and indeed, most of her attraction to him was because of his title. After the abdication, there was hardly a happily ever after for the woman who was always restless and dissatisfied with her lot. Over the years she became more and more bitter and cruel towards her husband but divorce was unthinkable. They lived their last decades in a vapid succession of social events and empty socializing. They seem to have been terribly cruel at times to even the most loyal of friends and lived a life of rich excess with no purpose, good deeds, or kindness anywhere. 

Morton's writing of this biography seems to have been somewhat complicated by Wallis' inability to tell the straightforward truth. Numerous times in this account, the author describes both Wallis' version of events and then how everyone else reported it. Even the man hired to ghostwrite her memoirs during her lifetime grew fed up with Wallis' cruelty and seeming revision of every story and eventually quit. Wallis was a complicated figure whose life was filled with half truths - a great love story not really built on love, a childhood of supposed deprivation yet filled with luxuries, a charming hostess who appeared to be well read but was secretly just skimming books enough to carry on a conversation. She never quite got exactly what she wanted and also never stopped wanted more than she had and ended her life as she began it, bitter and lacking peace with where she was and who she was in life. 

Stars: 4

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