The Profligate Son: Or, a True Story of Family Conflict, Fashionable Vice, and Financial Ruin in Regency Britain - Hardcover

Phillips, Nicola

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199687536 ISBN 13: 9780199687534

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA, 2014

Synopsis

In Regency England a profligate son was regarded as every parent's worst nightmare: he symbolized the dangerous temptations of a new consumer society and the failure of parents to instil moral, sexual, and financial self-control in their sons. This book tells the dramatic and moving story of one of those 'profligate sons': William Jackson, a charming teenage boy, whose embattled relationship with his father and frustrated attempts to keep up with his wealthy friends, resulted in personal and family tragedy.

About this title

About the Author

Dr Nicola Phillips is an expert in gender history and a lecturer in the department of History and Politics at Kingston University. Her first book was on women in business from 1700 to 1850, and her research focuses on eighteenth-century gender, work, family conflict, and criminal and civil
law. Nicola is also an advocate of public history. A co-founder of Kingston University's Centre for the Historical Record, she is also a member of the National Archives User Advisory Group and the Historical Association's Public History Committee, and has acted as a historical consultant for the
National Trust, the Royal Mail, and Addidi Wealth Ltd. She has also contributed to radio and TV programmes on gender history.

Review

Nicola Phillips tells this colourful tale well, but she also takes the opportunity at various points to describe the context in which the Jacksons moved. There is much to be learned in this book about the duties that a father was thought to owe to a son and vice versa; about the workings of the law, particularly in relation to debtors; about the process of transportation; and about the government of a colony in its earliest days. It is the work of an historian with a sure-footed knowledge of the period, and one who understands the value of archival research. * Leslie Mitchell, English Historical Review * [A]n engaging ... micro-study of the real-life fortunes of one such Regency rake. ... we are treated to an engrossing tale that cleverly weaves aspects of social, cultural and family history with an analysis of intergenerational conflict in the early nineteenth-century. * Family and Community History * If ever there was a real-life embodiment of the rake's progress, it would appear to be William Jackson. He is the subject of Nicola Phillips's superb new book, which takes the form of a biography but also uses the life of Jackson-and also those around him-to explore various aspects of late-Georgian social, criminal, imperial, and sexual history. * Biography * An immensely readable work of literary depths. * Kirkus Reviews * This is an engrossing tale of a Regency rake's fast times and tragic unraveling that vivifies the history of Georgian England and colonial Sydney, Australia. * Publishers Weekly * Nicola Phillips has given us a compulsively readable story of a young man of good family who went dramatically astray in the fleshpots and gambling houses of Regency England. The book brings to life the glitter, the tawdriness, the promise and the heartbreak of the times in a way that few more conventional histories have done. At the same time it is a perceptive study of two flawed, headstrong men who had the signal misfortune to be father and son. * Margaret R. Hunt, Professor of History and Women's and Gender Studies, Amherst College * A gripping story of privilege and power, ungrateful sons and disappointed fathers, in Regency England. Phillips brings the period to life with great authority and also sets the history in a thoughtful, modern context. A very enjoyable read. * Kate Mosse, author of the Languedoc Triology * The Profligate Son held me spellbound from start to finish. Nicola Phillips brings the seamy side of Regency England to life with remarkable clarity, and her anti-hero William Jackson's headlong descent into a hell of his own making is so vivid and so foolhardy that more than once I wanted to reach into the book and shake some sense into him. A compelling read. * Adrian Tinniswood, author of The Verneys: A True Story of Love, War, and Madness in Seventeenth-Century England and The Rainborowes: One Family's Quest to Build a New England * [The Profligate Son] reads like a period drama. The reader is thoroughly engulfed in the family calamity in skilfully set scenes ... The 'will he, won't he' dilemma - whether he will help his son or leave him to the hell he has built of his own making - keeps the reader on the edge of their seat. A spellbinding read. * Julie Peakman, Who Do You Think You Are? magazine * A true Regency tale, with dollops of absorbing social, legal and criminal history thrown in, beautifully told. Warmly recommended. * Mike Paterson, London Historians * [A] terrific book...told with style, flair and solid history. * Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post * A tale of juvenile folly turning into serious crime is afforded by Nicola Phillips's splendid The Profligate Son ... which charts the boy's chosen path to its sordid and inevitable end and in the process makes an age come wonderfully alive. * The Wall Street Journal * The engine of this book is its author's empathy, but Phillips also has an eye for detail ... There is so much to admire here ... Phillips is an excellent historian. * Literary Review * [An] excellently researched book. * Susan Elkin, Independent * Phillips, who writes smooth and beguiling prose, declines to twist her story into a cautionary tale for our times, but the caution is there to be given its due consideration. * Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post *

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0199687536
• ISBN 13: 9780199687534
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 332