Author: David Noy
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443893250
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
Dr Johnson said that he would walk to the ends of the earth to save Beauclerk. Other people who claimed to be his friends rejoiced at his early death. How did the beautiful youth of Francis Coates’ 1756 portrait become a man whose greatest claim to fame was causing an infestation of lice at Blenheim Palace through lack of personal hygiene? A great-grandson of Charles II and Nell Gwyn, he lived a privileged life thanks to fortuitously inherited wealth. He employed Robert Adam to build him a house at Muswell Hill which has almost completely disappeared from the records of Adam’s work due to a dispute about the bill. He was one of the leading book-collectors of the time, with a library of 30,000 volumes whose sale after his death was a major literary event. He also used his wealth to indulge interests in science and astronomy and a passion for gambling. As a result, he ran through his inheritance as quickly as he could sell it, falling into ever-increasing debt as his lawyer grew richer. Beauclerk knew all the leading figures of the British and French Enlightenments. He was a friend of Johnson, Adam Smith, David Hume, Horace Walpole, Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Wilkes and David Garrick. He met Rousseau and Voltaire, and immersed himself in French salon culture. He could charm people when he chose to, but did not always try. Recently he has been overshadowed by his wife, Lady Di (née Spencer), whose life by Carola Hicks (Improper Pursuits, 2001) has made her artistic talent and unconventional life well-known. The story of their adultery and marriage has not previously been told from Beauclerk’s point of view, and many other inaccuracies have crept into authoritative works such as the ODNB; he is regularly and unfairly dismissed as a bad husband. This biography shows that he was much more than the close associate of Johnson known from the pages of Boswell: a man of widely varied interests, from the Grand Tour to the contemporary theatre, who lived Enlightenment life to the full in a way which would not have been possible a generation earlier or later. Based on research in unpublished letters, legal documents and financial records, including some concerning the Adam house, as well as published diaries, letters and memoirs, it shows that he may have left no enduring legacy of his many talents, as even his friends admitted, but he made the most of all the opportunities available and lived a fascinating life which illuminates every aspect of Georgian elite society, from auctions to zoology, from care of one’s wig to building an observatory, and from mishaps in Venice to sea-therapy in Brighton.
Dr Johnson's Friend and Robert Adam's Client Topham Beauclerk
Author: David Noy
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443893250
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
Dr Johnson said that he would walk to the ends of the earth to save Beauclerk. Other people who claimed to be his friends rejoiced at his early death. How did the beautiful youth of Francis Coates’ 1756 portrait become a man whose greatest claim to fame was causing an infestation of lice at Blenheim Palace through lack of personal hygiene? A great-grandson of Charles II and Nell Gwyn, he lived a privileged life thanks to fortuitously inherited wealth. He employed Robert Adam to build him a house at Muswell Hill which has almost completely disappeared from the records of Adam’s work due to a dispute about the bill. He was one of the leading book-collectors of the time, with a library of 30,000 volumes whose sale after his death was a major literary event. He also used his wealth to indulge interests in science and astronomy and a passion for gambling. As a result, he ran through his inheritance as quickly as he could sell it, falling into ever-increasing debt as his lawyer grew richer. Beauclerk knew all the leading figures of the British and French Enlightenments. He was a friend of Johnson, Adam Smith, David Hume, Horace Walpole, Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Wilkes and David Garrick. He met Rousseau and Voltaire, and immersed himself in French salon culture. He could charm people when he chose to, but did not always try. Recently he has been overshadowed by his wife, Lady Di (née Spencer), whose life by Carola Hicks (Improper Pursuits, 2001) has made her artistic talent and unconventional life well-known. The story of their adultery and marriage has not previously been told from Beauclerk’s point of view, and many other inaccuracies have crept into authoritative works such as the ODNB; he is regularly and unfairly dismissed as a bad husband. This biography shows that he was much more than the close associate of Johnson known from the pages of Boswell: a man of widely varied interests, from the Grand Tour to the contemporary theatre, who lived Enlightenment life to the full in a way which would not have been possible a generation earlier or later. Based on research in unpublished letters, legal documents and financial records, including some concerning the Adam house, as well as published diaries, letters and memoirs, it shows that he may have left no enduring legacy of his many talents, as even his friends admitted, but he made the most of all the opportunities available and lived a fascinating life which illuminates every aspect of Georgian elite society, from auctions to zoology, from care of one’s wig to building an observatory, and from mishaps in Venice to sea-therapy in Brighton.
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443893250
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
Dr Johnson said that he would walk to the ends of the earth to save Beauclerk. Other people who claimed to be his friends rejoiced at his early death. How did the beautiful youth of Francis Coates’ 1756 portrait become a man whose greatest claim to fame was causing an infestation of lice at Blenheim Palace through lack of personal hygiene? A great-grandson of Charles II and Nell Gwyn, he lived a privileged life thanks to fortuitously inherited wealth. He employed Robert Adam to build him a house at Muswell Hill which has almost completely disappeared from the records of Adam’s work due to a dispute about the bill. He was one of the leading book-collectors of the time, with a library of 30,000 volumes whose sale after his death was a major literary event. He also used his wealth to indulge interests in science and astronomy and a passion for gambling. As a result, he ran through his inheritance as quickly as he could sell it, falling into ever-increasing debt as his lawyer grew richer. Beauclerk knew all the leading figures of the British and French Enlightenments. He was a friend of Johnson, Adam Smith, David Hume, Horace Walpole, Sir Joshua Reynolds, John Wilkes and David Garrick. He met Rousseau and Voltaire, and immersed himself in French salon culture. He could charm people when he chose to, but did not always try. Recently he has been overshadowed by his wife, Lady Di (née Spencer), whose life by Carola Hicks (Improper Pursuits, 2001) has made her artistic talent and unconventional life well-known. The story of their adultery and marriage has not previously been told from Beauclerk’s point of view, and many other inaccuracies have crept into authoritative works such as the ODNB; he is regularly and unfairly dismissed as a bad husband. This biography shows that he was much more than the close associate of Johnson known from the pages of Boswell: a man of widely varied interests, from the Grand Tour to the contemporary theatre, who lived Enlightenment life to the full in a way which would not have been possible a generation earlier or later. Based on research in unpublished letters, legal documents and financial records, including some concerning the Adam house, as well as published diaries, letters and memoirs, it shows that he may have left no enduring legacy of his many talents, as even his friends admitted, but he made the most of all the opportunities available and lived a fascinating life which illuminates every aspect of Georgian elite society, from auctions to zoology, from care of one’s wig to building an observatory, and from mishaps in Venice to sea-therapy in Brighton.
Dr Johnson
Author: Norman Page
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349082864
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1349082864
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 192
Book Description
Boswell's Life of Johnson: Abridged and Edited With an Introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood
Author: James Boswell
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 146552987X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 818
Book Description
Publisher: Library of Alexandria
ISBN: 146552987X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 818
Book Description
Picturesque London
Author: Percy Fitzgerald
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Picturesque London" by Percy Fitzgerald. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
Publisher: DigiCat
ISBN:
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 382
Book Description
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Picturesque London" by Percy Fitzgerald. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
A Book for a Rainy Day: Or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833
Author: John Thomas Smith
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 334
Book Description
The Farington Diary
Author: Joseph Farington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Artists
Languages : en
Pages : 404
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Artists
Languages : en
Pages : 404
Book Description
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
Author: James Boswell
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783375151553
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783375151553
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
Equity and the Law of Trusts
Author: Philip Henry Pettit
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Equity
Languages : en
Pages : 594
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Equity
Languages : en
Pages : 594
Book Description
Soho and Its Associations
Author: Edward Francis Rimbault
Publisher: London : Dulau
ISBN:
Category : London
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
Publisher: London : Dulau
ISBN:
Category : London
Languages : en
Pages : 250
Book Description
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
Author: John Hawkins
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Authors, English
Languages : en
Pages : 636
Book Description
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Authors, English
Languages : en
Pages : 636
Book Description