Charlotte and Lionel: A Rothschild Love Story
Dismissing the arranged marriage of Lionel Rothschild to his first cousin, Charlotte Rothschild, as simply a business decision brokered to insure a financial empire would be easy. That it is a happily-ever-after love story makes a merely interesting story irresistible.
In Charlotte and Lionel: A Rothschild Love Story, author Stanley Weintraub, Evan Pugh Professor Emeritus of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University, tells of a marriage of influence. The two Rothschilds he writes about lived in different countries: Lionel lived in England and Charlotte in Germany. (She moved to England after the marriage.) The marriage was arranged by both the “shrewd and formidable” mother of Lionel and the “elegant and society-focused” mother of Charlotte.
While the Rothschild name is synonymous with great wealth in banking, the book focuses on two other important aspects of the London Rothschilds: Lionel’s eleven year fight to be a Jewish member of Parliament without taking a Christian oath, which he eventually won; and Charlotte’s untiring efforts to help the poorer Jewish families in England. Both believe in good work and doing “good works.”
The book chronicles the life of the two cousins, including the death of a beloved daughter and Lionel’s declining health from rheumatoid arthritis. Lionel died in 1879 and Charlotte survived him by five years.
The marriage between Charlotte and Lionel, while arranged, endured and was enriched by the adversity and challenges they faced as one of the most powerful families in England. In the first sentence of the book, Lionel, upon meeting Charlotte for the first time, thanks his mother for his bride. The book also ends on a loving note. Charlotte had said: “Wealth was not enough. Love abides.”
Charlotte and Lionel is an extensively researched book that brings the Rothschilds to life, making them real people, not just wealthy aristocrats with lots of leisure time. Truthfully, I expected the book to be dry, but Stanley Weintraub’s writing and the story itself was extremely engaging and a heartwarming love story.
The book was released in February 2003 by The Free Press. The hard cover book sells for $27.50 and contains 336 pages— A good read for Valentine’s Day.
Note from Ellen Sue: On March 9, 2003, a longer version of this review appeared in The Centre Daily Times in State College. Previously, I had met the Weintraubs when they were guests at our local writers’ group and I received a review copy of the book. Weintraub, and his research partner/wife Rodelle, spent many hours reading the Rothschild family papers housed in the Rothschild Archive in England. These include letters and children’s books written by Charlotte. The many personal details in the book are proof of this extensive research.