Gladstone And Women

the long version

"William Gladstone was Prime Minister four times. Throughout his life, women, from Queen Victoria to prostitutes, were of great importance to him. We know a great deal about his attitudes towards them - and their reactions to him - as he documented his meetings with women copiously in his diary and letters." "Brought up in Liverpool by a pious mother and elder sister, Gladstone's early attempts at matrimony failed dismally, until marriage to the beautiful and spirited Catherine Glynne brought him domestic happiness and four daughters. In contrast, his younger sister Helen, who became addicted to laudanum and converted to Catholicism, remained a source of great frustration. Gladstone's most notorious interest in women, however, was his mission to rescue prostitutes, which he pursued with great vigour for over forty years, spending tens of thousands of pounds in the process. Few believed that his interest in these women was wholly innocent."--Jacket.