Love and Madness: The Murder of Martha Ray, Mistress of the Fourth Earl of SandwichHarper Collins, 2009. okt. 13. - 256 oldal In eighteenth-century England the aristocracy dominated the imagination, their exploits -- and misdeeds -- discussed, debated, and gossiped about in the salons and parlors of London. Now author Martin Levy vividly re-creates one of the most shocking and scandalous events of the period, in a riveting true tale of passion, obsession, murder, and courtroom drama. On a spring evening in the year 1779, a young woman emerged from London's Covent Garden Theatre amid a grand swirl of lords and ladies, their servants and coachmen. From out of the shadows a man emerged, dressed in a black suit. He raised a pistol and fired one fatal shot point-blank into the woman's head. A sudden and brutal murder, it was all the more shocking because of the identities of those involved. The victim was Martha Ray, famed aficionada of fashion and the arts, and longtime live-in mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, high-ranking minister to King George III. The assailant was James Hackman, a respected Anglican minister and Martha Ray's former lover. It was a savage crime that rocked both British high society and the church, and inflamed the interest and imagination of such renowned personages as Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, noted biographer and lover of prostitutes and executions. And it resulted in a courtroom extravaganza unique in the annals of legal proceedings -- where passion was the motive, the madness of "momentary phrenzy" the mitigating circumstance . . . and love the ultimate justification for a crazed act of murder. With consummate skill, author Martin Levy brings to breathtaking life the sights and sounds of an unparalleled era in history -- when hangings were public entertainment and debauchery was a popular pastime of the wealthy and the titled -- and expertly unravels the mystery behind a truly sensational slaying. Fascinating, startling, edifying, and entertaining, Love and Madness is a brilliant tale of crime and punishment as vivid and compelling as the headlines of today. |
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... write: Special Markets Department, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022. First Perennial edition published 2005. Book design by Shubhani Sarkar The Library of Congress has catalogued the hardcover ...
... write and papers to assemble in his defense. As first lord of the Admiralty, his responsibilities included almost every detail of naval organization, from the inspection of George III's dockyards to matters of tactics and strategy ...
... faithful friend, J. Hackman.13 Later this letter would be produced in court as evidence that the writer did not intend to kill Martha Ray, but to commit suicide. H In the meantime, while arrangements were made to move Miss 10 Love & ...
... writer; the two youngest boys, William and John; and their daughter, Augusta, later the countess of Viry.16 Fielding arrived at about three o'clock in the morning, by which time Westminster's coroner, Thomas Prickard, had already ...
Tartalomjegyzék
Newgate Prison | 87 |
A Public Example | 99 |
This Good Old Custom | 125 |
An Essay Inspired by James Hackmans Journey | 155 |
notes | 201 |
bibliography | 219 |
index | 233 |
Más kiadások - Összes megtekintése
Love and Madness: The Murder of Martha Ray, Mistress of the Fourth Earl of ... Martin Levy Korlátozott előnézet - 2004 |
Love and Madness: The Murder of Martha Ray, Mistress of the Fourth Earl of ... M. J. Levy Nincs elérhető előnézet - 2004 |