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ecdereus's review against another edition
2.0
Pffffff.... dat was doorbijten! Eindelijk dan toch uit...
En helaas: ik kan er niet echt over roepen. Velen zijn wellicht een andere mening toegedaan, zoals ik bijvoorbeeld ook hier op Goodreads zie, maar voor mij was het een langdradig verhaal, doorspekt met heel veel namen uit de Britse aristocratie die mij weinig tot niets zeggen en waardoor ik er niet bij betrokken raakte.
Ontegenzeggelijk was het korte leven van Lady Diana Spencer grotendeels ongelukkig en in-triest en blijkt zij al vanaf haar vroege jeugd verstoken te zijn gebleven van liefdevolle aandacht. Haar huwelijk met Prins Charles bleek van meet af aan een drama, mede doordat, zoals ze zelf zei, zich drie personen in haar huwelijk bevonden. Het is diep tragisch dat juist toen zij met Dodi al Fayed een gelukkige nieuwe toekomst tegemoet leek te gaan, de dood haar inhaalde.
Van mij slechts 2½ sterren.
En helaas: ik kan er niet echt over roepen. Velen zijn wellicht een andere mening toegedaan, zoals ik bijvoorbeeld ook hier op Goodreads zie, maar voor mij was het een langdradig verhaal, doorspekt met heel veel namen uit de Britse aristocratie die mij weinig tot niets zeggen en waardoor ik er niet bij betrokken raakte.
Ontegenzeggelijk was het korte leven van Lady Diana Spencer grotendeels ongelukkig en in-triest en blijkt zij al vanaf haar vroege jeugd verstoken te zijn gebleven van liefdevolle aandacht. Haar huwelijk met Prins Charles bleek van meet af aan een drama, mede doordat, zoals ze zelf zei, zich drie personen in haar huwelijk bevonden. Het is diep tragisch dat juist toen zij met Dodi al Fayed een gelukkige nieuwe toekomst tegemoet leek te gaan, de dood haar inhaalde.
Van mij slechts 2½ sterren.
savvystory's review against another edition
3.0
I put this on hold at the library months ago while I was watching The Crown. I was fascinated by the story that Diana secretly recorded tapes to help with the writing. I always feel this need to know what is fact and fiction. My turn finally came up and after all that waiting I felt compelled to take my turn with the book.
Overall the book was repetitive and not a very enjoyable read. They made the point about how the royal family mistreated and undervalued Diana over and over. At the time it was written, with so much secretive urgency, maybe it was really important to get that point across and get people to believe them. But the facts pretty well speak for themselves.
The sentences that hit hardest for me was the detail that Diana had the same pithy jokes in her kitchen that any 90’s mom would’ve had. She’s this outsized iconic figure, and knowing she had “Why don’t you wine about it?” on her fridge made her real for me. And that if a middle eastern princess had to smuggle out tapes the country would be called out for totalitarianism.
This book, and Diana’s story, captures the force of the British empire and the white male noble patriarchy. She was harmed by it her whole life. If anything she’s unlucky to have been a sensitive person born into the aristrocracy. But she’s also extremely privileged to have born into it at the same time. I think that’s why Diana is so fascinating to the human brain: she seemed to have everything, but she was miserable and couldn’t seem to figure out how to be happy with what she had. But her story shows the fairytale of royalty, privilege, power is equivalent to having nothing that a human needs - genuine connection, love, affection, safety, trust.
Overall the book was repetitive and not a very enjoyable read. They made the point about how the royal family mistreated and undervalued Diana over and over. At the time it was written, with so much secretive urgency, maybe it was really important to get that point across and get people to believe them. But the facts pretty well speak for themselves.
The sentences that hit hardest for me was the detail that Diana had the same pithy jokes in her kitchen that any 90’s mom would’ve had. She’s this outsized iconic figure, and knowing she had “Why don’t you wine about it?” on her fridge made her real for me. And that if a middle eastern princess had to smuggle out tapes the country would be called out for totalitarianism.
This book, and Diana’s story, captures the force of the British empire and the white male noble patriarchy. She was harmed by it her whole life. If anything she’s unlucky to have been a sensitive person born into the aristrocracy. But she’s also extremely privileged to have born into it at the same time. I think that’s why Diana is so fascinating to the human brain: she seemed to have everything, but she was miserable and couldn’t seem to figure out how to be happy with what she had. But her story shows the fairytale of royalty, privilege, power is equivalent to having nothing that a human needs - genuine connection, love, affection, safety, trust.
maddielza's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, and Car accident
ssherm's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.75
Learned a lot about all things Diana- the audiobook was great. Became extremely repetitive tho
mountaineer77's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
From the little of Diana's persona I knew before this, my eyes were opened to the history of the "People's Princess". Her intuition was spot on for many things, and her poise and confidence dazzled the world. Yet behind that, Andrew Morton revealed a haughty, self-destructive, and insecure girl. How she suffered in silence, oppressed by the most influential & feared family in Britain! It was invigorating to witness across the pages Diana grow into the facade she was forced to create. Morton writes so that each of the seismic shifts in her life trajectory are felt.
Definitely worth a read & well said from the back summary - that this is the closest we will come to an autobiography from Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales & of the World.
Definitely worth a read & well said from the back summary - that this is the closest we will come to an autobiography from Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales & of the World.
lazyreader113's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Self harm, and Gaslighting
aprilconnolly's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
As I’m sure many people have experienced, I felt an inexplicable interest in Princess Diana from an early age. At that time it was merely that, and interest, I liked to look at her on the decorative plates my nanny had hanging on her wall. But the more I learned about her the more her life intrigued me.
As much as I feel drawn to Lady Di, I’ve never felt an intense adoration of her- on the contrary I’ve often found myself being critical of some of her attitudes or behaviors. Nonetheless, this is what makes her so interesting. That she is so human. I definitely felt that while reading this book.
I enjoyed most when Morten would add a little of his own perception of the princess.
This is essentially her autobiography and so the book felt very weighted on the things that she wanted people to focus on, especially the sections that were transcripts of her interviews. In those sections she often spoke of her own character, and her perception of herself felt very stunted and self protective. This isn't surprising, given the attacks she faced on a daily basis, but I would have loved to have seen more self reflection on her part as opposed to feeling like she was on the defensive.
The book also went on and on about her calling as a humanitarian, to the point where it felt exhausting at times. I would have been more interested in learning details about her charity work than to keep hearing about how important it was to her/what a great job she did. For example, the story of her friend dying of AIDS and the impact that had on her worldview was extremely interesting.
Upon reflecting on Diana and the writing of this book Morten described her as “a confusing web of contradictions.” I thought this was very apt and is perhaps the reason who people are so interested in her to this day and also why people are still struggling to understand her. The need to untangle that web.
If I was hoping for this book to do this, it didn't. But I still enjoyed it.
I’ve liked some of the documentaries I’ve seen about Princess Diana more, but again, this is essentially her autobiography and it read this that level of bias.