The Elgin Marbles

The Elgin Marbles: The Ultimate Soap Opera in the Lives of the Rich and Famous Two Centuries Ago

At a certain point during this weekend, I felt unable to absorb any more devastating news of the tragedy, misery and ineptitude caused by Hurricane Katrina. Human nature being what it is, I was looking for some escape. It arrived in the form of a slender book, telling the fascinating tale of sex, art and money behind the world famous Elgin Marbles, taken away from the Parthenon and now housed in the British Museum. Any student of history knows the basic facts. At the beginning of the 19th century, when Greece was ruled by Turkey, British Ambassador Lord Elgin obtained official permission from the Turkish authorities to remove marble sculptures from the facade of the Parthenon. At a great expense, he managed to crate and ship the Marbles off to England, which would be a daunting task even by today's standards. However, he didn't enjoy the possession of this rare treasure for too long. Upon his return to England and faced with enormous debts, Lord Elgin was forced to sell the priceless marbles to the British government at a loss.

Mistress of the Elgin Marbles, Susan Nagel tells the story of the life and imploding marriage of a spirited young woman who, against the prevailing traditions of her time, insisted on playing an active role in shaping her own life. In the first five years of their marriage, Mary gave birth to five children, but it never stopped her for a moment, from joining her husband, even on the most arduous of his journeys. In her diaries and in letters to her parents back in England, she's an extremely eloquent and entertaining observer of the lives of the rich and famous, first in Constantinople, and then in the many other places she lived, including Paris, where she and her husband were detained for more than a year, as hostages when the short-lived peace with Napoleon abruptly ended.