Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England - Softcover

Erickson, Carolly

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0380813343 ISBN 13: 9780380813346

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks, 2011

Synopsis

"A lively and thoroughly enthralling account of thisparadoxical age ... [that reads] like a whopping good novel." --- New York Times Book Review

Regency England, the period between 1810 and 1820, has long been seen as a decade of hedonism and romance, when dashing beaux and elegant belles played out their flirtations against a backdrop of opulence and style. Yet beneath the surface glitter of the Regency lay an underlying malaise, a pervasive hollowness and sense of loss, along with an explosive undercurrent of popular unrest and political radicalism.

It was indeed a tempestuous, quicksilver era, haunted by war and the human wreckage of war, and by fears of Luddite violence and risings of the overtaxed, underfed poor. A time of financial uncertainty when fortunes were made and lost amid high risk and the ever-present specter of bankruptcy.

And it was, memorably, a decade studded with larger-than-life personalities: the aged king in his slow decline into delusion; the flamboyant Prince Regent in his extravagant Brighton Pavilion; the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo; the debauched, tragically fissured Lord Byron, hero to the women of fashionable London. These and many others are brought to vibrant life in this wide-ranging, captivating social history---a history as dramatic as the times themselves.

"Anyone wanting a lively, decorative introduction to the Regency could not do better than Our Tempestuous Day."---Washington Post

About this title

About the Author

Distinguished historian Carolly Erickson is the author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Antoinette, The First Elizabeth, Great Catherine, Alexandra, and many other prize-winning works of fiction and nonfiction. She lives in Hawaii.

From Publishers Weekly

In this chronicle of Regency England (18101820), popular historian Erickson shows that her considerable skills aren't limited to the depiction of Tudor monarchs (Bloody Mary, Great Harry, etc.). The change in period has been beneficial: her recent 16th century biography, Mistress Anne, had a desultory quality that has been avoided in this colorful, entertaining portrait of a turbulent time. In 1810, when George III was declared mentally incapable of governing, his eldest and least favorite son, later George IV, became Regent. He was a fitting figurehead for a gaudy, self-indulgent age, when aristocrats drank, dined and gambled until dawn while an increasingly restless populace chafed under miserable living conditions and an economic crisis created by a century of near-constant warfare. The battle of Waterloo in 1815 ended the Napoleonic Wars, but only made the situation in England more volatile, as thousands of soliders returned home to unemployment and poverty. Erickson vividly recreates an unsettled, intriguing era, focusing on a few key events and personalities to give readers a sense of the Regency's flavor. 25,000 first printing, $20,000 ad/promo. Foreign rights: Lynn Nesbit, ICM.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0380813343
• ISBN 13: 9780380813346
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 304