1975, 1st edition; Coward, McCann & Geoghegan publishers, New York; Book Club Edition; hardbound in wheat and red boards with lily embossed on cover and gilt lettering along spine; quite good condition of book; deckled (rough-cut) format of page edges; dust jacket good.
 
Description -
The Prince was Edward, Prince of Wales, heir to the throne, despair of his royal mother, lover of fast horses, high stakes and beautiful women. The Lily was Mrs. Lillie Langtry, tediously married, and newly arrived from Jersey, whose portrait by Millais turned her almost overnight into one of the most sought after professional beauties in London. Together they set the tone of an era. Their affair, played out over three decades, set the unbuttonmed tone of London society, released at last from the long, bleak, mourning-clad winter of Victorian respectability. Lillie was the first royal mistress Bertie flaunted in public, and he built her a love nest in Bournemouth. Lillie even achieved presentation to Vitoria at one of the old Queen's afternoon levees.
 
In this book the author draws a spirited portrait of Queen Victoria as the autocratic matriarch. He also captyres the glitter, quarreling Marlborough House set who surrounded her eldest, least satisfactory son, and the evanescent world of the London theatre. Above all, in the portrait of Lillie, he makes an absorbing study of a beautiful, mabitious and formidable woman, who was a phenomenon of the age.