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Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the Eighteenth Century

3.45 ( 60 Ratings by Goodreads)
Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the Eighteenth Century

Sentimental Murder: Love and Madness in the Eighteenth Century

(Author)
3.45 (60 Ratings by Goodreads)
hardback
Published: 1 March, 2004
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Description

On an April evening in 1779, a woman is shot on the steps of Covent Garden. Her murderer is a young soldier and Church of England minister; her lover, the Earl of Sandwich, one of the most powerful policians of the day. This compelling account of murder, love and intrigue brings Georgian London to life, in a spellbinding historical masterpiece. On an April evening in 1779, Martha Ray, mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, was shot on the steps of Covent Garden by James Hackman, a young soldier and minister of the Church of England. She died instantly, leaving behind a grief-stricken lover and five small children. Hackman, after trying to kill himself, was arrested, tried and hanged at Tyburn ten days later. The story was to become one of the scandals of the age. It seemed an open-and-shut case, but why had Hackman killed Ray? He claimed he suffered from 'love's madness' but his motives remained obscure. And as Martha Ray shared the bed of one of the most powerful and unpopular politicians of the day (and one of Georgian London's greatest libertines), the city buzzed with the story, as every hack journalist sharpened his pen. John Brewer has written an account of this violent murder that is as thrilling and compelling as the best crime novel. Atmospheric, beautifully written, and alive with the characters and bustle of 18th-century London, the book examines in minute detail the events of a few crucial moments and gives an unforgettable account of the relationships between the three protagonists and their different places within society. However, the interest in Martha's murder did not end with the Georgians, and A Sentimental Murder ranges over two centuries, populated by journalists, biographers and historians who tried to make sense of the killing. And so it becomes an intriguing exploration of the relations between history and fiction, storytelling and fact, past and present. John Brewer has transformed a tragic tale of murder into an historical masterpiece.
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More Details

Type Book
ISBN13 9780002571340
ISBN10 000257134X
Number Of Pages 352
Item Weight 598 g
Product Dimensions 154 x 34 x 236 mm
Publisher / Reseller HarperCollins
Format hardback
Edition 1st Edition
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Media Reviews

Praise for Pleasures of the Imagination'If you want to understand how British culture reinvented itself in the 18th century, read The Pleasures of the Imagination... Like all really original achievements it makes us sharply rethink things we supposed we knew well, but it does so with humour and humanity, and through the text runs Brewer's remarkable intellect: forceful, lucid and penetrating.' Simon Schama'John Brewer has written an accessible, suggestive and fascinating book... His canvas is vast.' Victoria Glendinning, Daily Telegraph'The Pleasures of the Imagination is a feast... One could not hope for a more accomplished or enjoyable account of its subject than this long but unfailingly compelling book, which is packed with fascinating detail and written with commanding boldness, clarity and verve.' Blair Worden, Spectator

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Author's Bio

John Brewer is Eli and Edye Broad Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Los Angeles. His previous book, The Pleasures of the Imagination, a widely acclaimed history of the emergence of culture in Britain during the eighteenth century, won the Wolfson Prize in 1998. The Sinews of Power, brought about a radical rethinking of the relationship between finance and the English state in the eighteenth century. He is the author of many other books. He is married to Stella Tillyard lives in Oxford and Los Angeles.

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