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Books > History > World history > 1750 to 1900
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The First Celebrities - Five Regency Portraits (Hardcover)
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The First Celebrities - Five Regency Portraits (Hardcover)
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What percentage of the printed and online media is dedicated to
celebrity culture today? A tricky calculation; but there is no
doubt that the percentage was pretty high when mass media first
acquired a recognisably modern form in the Regency period. Peter
James Bowman shows how, following the outrageous fame of Lord
Byron, an interest in the foibles rather than the achievements of
prominent individuals was kindled and sustained by newspapers,
satirical prints and society gossip. Here are five pen-portraits of
colourful men and women who played leading roles in their day but
whose reputations subsequently faded, figures who for this reason
better represent their age than those whose importance transcends
it. Their peculiar spheres of activity - the stage, politics,
diplomacy, art, literature and fashion - are also explored. Harriot
Mellon, the illegitimate daughter of a wardrobe-keeper in a company
of strolling players, married the elderly banker Thomas Coutts;
seven years later, she was the richest widow in the land and a
target of ferocious abuse. Dorothea Lieven, the Russian
ambassador's wife, used her intellect, dignity and a talent for
flattery to entrance numerous statesmen and become a force in
British politics. Richard Grenville, Duke of Buckingham, was a
corrupt parliamentarian who squandered a vast income and caused the
decline of the mighty Grenville dynasty. Lady Charlotte Bury was
mocked by Thackeray as 'Lady Flummery' because of her execrable
novels - but she was a great beauty who married for love not once,
but twice. Sir Thomas Lawrence deserved his eminence as an artist,
but had to use all his charm and courtliness to conceal the
potentially explosive secrets of his private life. Here is a cast
of characters to savour, one that reveals the realities of the
period as no Austen novel could.
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