POOR LITTLE PRINCESS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27517, 11 October 1950, Page 2

POOR LITTLE PRINCESS

Literature

THE PRIVATE DIARIES OF DAISY, PRINCESS OF PLESS, 1873-1914, Edited by D. Chapman-Huston. Albemarle Library, John Murray. 10s 6d.

This is a compilation from the Princess of Pless’s two volumes of memoirs published in 1928, or thereabouts, some seven years after she had divorced her humourless Germanic prince. It is perhaps even more entertaining to read now than the earlier volumes were then, for the scene in which the author moved has now a fantastic, almost fairy-tale quality. Daisy was born a Cornwallis-West. Her father was comparatively poor, and had to make do with a small though exquisite manor house in Hampstead of some 30 rooms or so, and a castle in North Wales that was little bigger. However, he possessed something more valuable than wealth, namely noble descent, so that Daisy’s mamma was able to marry her off in her first season to the fabulously wealthy Prince of Pless, in spite of the competition of an American girl whom the Prince had actually fallen in love with, but who, poor wretch, possessed no quarterings. From that moment the Grimm’s Fairy Tale began. A rope of pearls 21 feet long,

a castle with 600 rooms,, regiments of retainers, emperors, princes and princesses, dukes and duchesses. At any moment one expects the Marquess of Carabas to enter the scene.

But behind the tinsel and the glitter there is a very clear picture of a girl married off in the old style, doing her best to keep a loveless marriage going, for the sake of her children and also because divorce at that time was practically unthinkable for one in her position. She does not rail either at her mother, who was largely responsible for her life, nor at the system which produced both her mother and her husband. Indeed, Daisy of Pless was not one of the world’s great brains. It is doubtful if she ever really thought clearly at all. Her attempts to intervene in the course of history by cosy chats with Emperor Welhelm and sundry ambassadors must have caused some amusement but little else. But she was a very warm human person, and her personality comes through into these pages in a very engaging way. p H w N