That Woman

I was so looking forward to reading That Woman (#261), Anne Sebba's recent biography of Wallis Warfield Simpson, the late Duchess of Windsor , based on a cover blurb which claims it "rescues her from the vilification she endured in her own lifetime."  I am neither an admirer nor a detractor of Wallis Simpson, but I do find her story intriguing.  I was hoping for some new insight into what made her tick, but for me, this is not the book. 

When I first pick up a biography with illustrations, I usually look at the pictures first thing to help put a mental picture in my mind of the people discussed in the book, or the places they have lived, or with which they were familiar.  My first clue that this might not be a reliable biography came as I was browsing through the picture captions, and as a casual American reader, noting the incorrect attributions.  What else might be wrong in this volume?  The second thing that put me off That Woman was the author's introduction to the book by recounting her weekend spent at an Austrian schloss where she was invited by a minor Austrian "princeling" as a twenty one year old Reuters correspondent.  Although it meant turning down a lifetime spent in such a rarefied atmosphere of wealth and influence, she says she never saw her "Prince Charming" again.  The implication was that she was nobler than Wallis Simpson for turning down these worldly temptations.  Of course, the reader is left to question whether, in fact, the choice was hers.  But from this anecdote, it became clear that Ms. Sebba looks down on her subject, because Wallis succumbed to the lure of money. 

Portraying Wallis as from a poor and obscure American background while simultaneously trying to prove that she was from American "aristocracy" only heightens that basic element of snobbery throughout the biography.  I doubt too many Americans would consider someone "poor and obscure" if she attended the most expensive and exclusive girls' boarding school in Maryland, or was presented at a debutant ball with one of Baltimore's most important society weddings of the year to follow. 

Yes, Wallis Simpson did what she could to improve her own lot after a financially insecure childhood, but an abusive alcoholic husband could hardly be considered a matrimonial prize.  It seems from reading That Woman that her second marriage to Ernest Simpson was probably her happiest.  In modern terms, I believe Edward VIII would have been considered a stalker.  His own contemporaries thought he might have been mentally ill and called him "little man".  Even his own father thought that he would never rule after him, that he would abdicate.  Which does beg the question, why didn't George V do more to prepare his younger son Bertie to take over the reins in case that happened?  Wouldn't it have been better for England if he had done so?  And one has to wonder at the hypocrisy of a government and church hellbent on keeping Edward VIII in power and separating him from Mrs. Simpson when they were so afraid of where his political leanings might lead the Empire.  Frankly, I think they should have awarded Wallis Simpson a medal and a generous income for taking him off the world stage at a critical point instead of denying her the title "Her Royal Highness".  That just seemed like spite on the part of the British.

That's not to say that she didn't have her own mean and vindictive side, but it seems apparent that both the King and the government put Wallis into such an untenable position that she was forced to go through with the divorce from Ernest Simpson and marry the King instead. (Shades of Henry VIII!)  In the end, I think she did what she had to do and lived with the consequences when the life she loved basically evaporated because of their circumstances. 

Although  Ms. Sebba spent much time on Wallis' early years, and details the objections to the marriage of the Windsors, once World War II ends, she gives very short shrift to the rest of the Windsor's lives.  She basically portrays them as rich and aimless, but when the Duke was denied any meaningful duties by his family and the British government, I hardly find this surprising.  But I would have liked to know a little more about them than the very meager information about the few dinners they gave (but didn't eat!) and the time they spent in the decades before they both died.  Oh, well.

I do think the author did quite a bit of her own vilifying of Wallis Simpson by making her dislike of Americans in general so obvious, and particularly by poking fun of her accent.  Notes from Society members' private papers and memoirs made that part easy.  All she had to do was quote them.  But it did go far to explaining a cultural bias when I discovered that all the glowing cover blurbs were written solely by British authors.  I did find the author's cover flap portrait ironic in terms of her emphasis on Wallis' obsession with her image.  Hmm.  Not a whole lot new, but if you decide to read That Woman don't expect an even handed treatment of Wallis' story here.