Our Tempestuous Day: A History of Regency England – Opulence and Scandal, Political Radicalism, and the Napoleonic Wars - 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.

Edition details

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