Balfour's World: Aristocracy and Political Culture and the Fin de Siècle by Nancy W. Ellenberger (review)

History has not been particularly kind to the group known as the "Souls." They were neither as modern and artistic as the younger Bloomsbury Group, nor as famous and aristocratic as the contemporary Marlborough House Set. Despite this, its members are well known as individuals and can hardly be called under-studied by researchers. There are numerous biographies, political histories and even collections of published letters by many members of this group. The Souls as individuals are hard to ignore, but as a social group they have found few champions.

Why then, one might ask, has Nancy Ellenberger turned her focus to this grouping of people? In her introduction, Ellenberger explains how her work seeks to explore the world that surrounded Arthur Balfour in an attempt to chart the new "emotional regime" of the British political upper classes. The book is thus not about the Souls explicitly, but some of its key members. This in-depth, impeccably researched book ties together the social, cultural, and political worlds of an influential group of people. Part biography, part micro-history, she has focused her work to six key members of the Souls in order to explore how individuals experienced some of the great social and political changes of the era.

The book ably highlights the lives of decidedly influential people whose existence, both personal and professional, helped shape and define attitudes of the time. While the text cannot answer the big questions – to what extent the era marked the end of aristocracy, or the birth of the modern – it shows how these big ideas mattered in everyday life to individuals. Some embraced and adapted to change such as Balfour, while others, like the Earl of Pembroke, struggled to find a place in the modern world. The books is an exploration of the intimate lives of some of the most powerful men and women of late-Victorian Britain, and a welcome addition to a growing literature on the Victorian elites.

The book begins with an overview of the cast of characters in the text for those not as familiar with the families involved and their connections. The main figures portrayed are, in order of importance, Arthur Balfour, Margot Tennant, George Pembroke, George Wyndham, Mary Wyndham, and Laura Tennant. While those most familiar with the era are the target audience of the book, one does not have to be an expert in Victorian elites to profit from the work. The introduction sets the structure of the book as chapters mainly devoted to differing combinations of dual biography; however, chapter five is devoted to Balfour alone and the final chapter chronicles the year 1895. While the idea of dual biography is interesting, it is to the book's benefit that Ellenberger does not slavishly follow the model when the occasion warrants another approach. She also includes two "interludes" to set the political and cultural scenes when needed.

One welcome addition to the book is the detailed insight into mixed-sex sociability at the fin de siècle; historians of gender who gravitate to single sex environments and relationships often overlook such topics. The interpersonal, sexual, and platonic relationships of the men and women of the text are given full reign with all of their complexities and contradictions. Ellenberger gets as much out of her sources as she can, but does not overstretch her evidence, or attempt to explain all of the mysteries of the group. She clearly develops a sense of the personality of all of the characters involved, but is keen to understand them on their own terms with their own values. Ellenberger is not limited to a single approach in her research, and ties together multiple historiographies from politics, to class, to humor.

The book does leave the reader with some unanswered questions. Why is Lord Curzon given relatively cursory treatment? Was there any greater pull or [End Page 734...