The Decline and Fall of the House of Windsor

At first sight it seems inconceivable that another word could usefully be written about the endlessly dissected House of Windsor, but Spoto, biographer of Elizabeth Taylor, Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe, has skillfully assembled what could be entitled ``Windsors 101.'' They are all here: from Victoria, overweight matriarch, to Diana, bulimic princess. Finally the sequence is clear: all those Edwards and Georges sorted out neatly and laid before us, each with his idiosyncrasies. And, clearly, one of their strengths is their women. Spoto is on firm ground here. He enjoys profiling strong women. His Victoria is the standard cliche of imperial entitlement, but he also devotes a lot of space to Edward VII's beautiful and gracious consort, Queen Alexandra, who supported her erratic and unfaithful husband even to the point of inviting his mistress, Alice Keppel, to console him on his deathbed. Queen Mary, wife of his successor, George V, was devoted to first the monarchy and then her husband; even her wardrobe was ``frozen in time at the express command of the king,'' causing her to go down in history clad always in stiff, formal gowns and with piled-up hair. Sensibly, Spoto devotes less attention to the current generation of wayward Windsors. He points out, almost wistfully, that with a divorced sister (Margaret), a divorced and remarried daughter (Anne), and two divorced or separated sons (Charles and Andrew), Elizabeth II, as head of the Church of England, which does not officially countenance divorce, is having a hard time maintaining the mystique of the royalty. The earlier Windsors were unfaithful, extravagant and intemperate, but at least they did it out of the public eye. If the dreaded media hadn't put Princess Di on the front of almost every publication in the world, however, would there be an international audience for this entertaining and informative tour of a dynasty that named itself after its biggest castle? Photos. First serial to Cosmopolitan; BOMC alternate; author tour. (Nov.)