Arabian Horse In History March 2012

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Arabian Horse In History L ady Jane Digby ’s

Scandalous Life And Desert Romance

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by Andrew K. Steen

Lady Jane Digby was widely regarded as one of the most beautiful, remarkable and notorious women of the 19th century. In the words of one of her biographers, she was “the female counterpart of the Byronic hero—the proud, passionate, moody, often anguished sinner, who defied every rule that confined the human spirit … determined to wrest happiness from a gloriously inviting life.” Others, less sympathetic to her unconventional and emancipated lifestyle, labeled her as merely “a fallen and promiscuous woman.” Certainly, few women of any age ever provoked such firestorms of controversy and gossip.