This new biography of Lady Blessington, the first in more than eighty years, illuminates the private and public life of this important but neglected salonnière and author. This study enriches our knowledge of the social, political, and literary history of the post-Romantic and early Victorian era. It examines Lady Blessington’s close friendships with politicians and writers, especially Edward Bulwer Lytton and Benjamin Disraeli. Statesmen, diplomats, writers, and artists were her constant visitors, as they found her friendship and conversation invaluable to their professional and social lives. The circumstances of a life lived in luxury and indulgence changed upon the death of Lady Blessington’s husband, forcing her to support herself and several dependents with her writing. Throughout this biography, Lady Blessington’s voice is evident and should reawaken scholarly and popular interest in her voluminous works. She wrote twenty novels in genres including silver-fork fiction, psychological drama, and verse narrative. She also produced four travel books, many short stories, and numerous poems and edited the popular literary gift annuals Heath’s Book of Beauty and The Keepsake. This book reveals the humanity of a woman whom contemporary gossip considered scandalous because of her alleged relationship with her stepdaughter’s estranged husband, Count D’Orsay. Lady Blessington’s struggle in the face of many challenges is an inspiring story of individual strength. It is a tale of a woman whose legacy of integrity, determination, and sheer hard work provides us with enlarged insights into an era and society often overlooked by history.

From his first appearance in London in 1821 until his death in Paris in 1852, Count D'Orsay dominated and scandalized the whole of European society. For three decades he was the ultimate arbiter in matters of taste, style and fashion -- what D'Orsay wore today, society would wear tomorrow. He also enthralled Society with the thirty-year soap opera of his relationship with Lady Blessington, whose daughter he married and with whose husband he was suspected of having had an affair. Bisexual, flamboyant and outrageous, D'Orsay was said to have ruined the cream of British aristocracy. He toured Europe on an enormous spending spree; paid homage to a dying Lord Byron in Italy, set up a racing course in Notting Hill and a gambling den in St James's. Nick Foulkes' Last of the Dandies is a vivid biography of an astonishingly flamboyant figure and a dazzling portrait of an era.

"D'Orsay; or, The Complete Dandy" authored by W. Teignmouth Shore presents an illuminating biography of Count Alfred d'Orsay, a prominent figure in the fashionable circles of 19th-century society. Shore's meticulous research and engaging prose unveil the complexities of d'Orsay's character, shedding light on his role as a cultural influencer and dandy. Through vivid descriptions of high fashion, art, and social interactions, the author paints a rich portrait of d'Orsay's life, inviting readers to explore the cultural milieu of the era. By delving into the world of dandyism and its impact on society, "D'Orsay; or, The Complete Dandy" offers readers a glimpse into a captivating period of history and an individual who embodied its essence.

Based upon the London edition of 1834, this text uses a copy annotated, underlined, and marginally marked by Byron's last mistress, Countess Teresa Guiccioli. Originally published in 1969. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

"Famous Affinities of History" is a book of passion-filled accounts of the most famous love affairs of history. The stories of Cleopatra, Napoleon, Victor Hugo, Honore de Balzac, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, Karl Marx, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Byron, George Sand and other famous people of all times (even those of royal blood are not spared), are dealt with in Lyndon Orr's own interesting and suspenseful style. This book makes an informative, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable read, giving us an insight into the lives and lifestyles of various popular figures of history.

In 1788, the Catalogue of Five Hundred Celebrated Authors of Great Britain, Now Living forecast a form of authorship that rested on biographical revelation and media saturation as well as literary achievement. This collection traces the unique experiences of women writers within a celebrity culture that was intimately connected to the expansion of print technology and of visual and material culture in the nineteenth century. The contributors examine a wide range of artifacts, including prefaces, portraits, frontispieces, birthday books, calendars and gossip columns, to consider the nature of women's celebrity and the forces that created it. How did authors like Jane Austen, the Countess of Blessington, Louisa May Alcott, Alice Meynell, and Marie Corelli negotiate the increasing demands for public revelation of the private self? How did gender shape the posthumous participation of women writers such as Jane Austen, Ellen Wood, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Christina Rossetti in celebrity culture? These and other important questions related to the treatment of women in celebrity genres and media, and the strategies women writers used to control their public images, are taken up in this suggestive exploration of how nineteenth and early twentieth century women writers achieved popular, critical, and commercial success.

The covers are reproductions of rare bookbindings. Each volume has "Note on the binding ... By Cyril Davenport."