Sex, fame and scandal in the theatrical, literary and social circles of late-eighteenth-century England.One of the most flamboyant women of the late-eighteenth century, Mary Robinson's life was marked by reversals of fortune. After being raised by a middle-class father, Mary was married, at age fourteen, to Thomas Robinson. His dissipated lifestyle landed the couple and their baby in debtors' prison, where Mary wrote her first book of poetry and met lifelong friend Georgiana, the Duchess of Devonshire.On her release, Mary quickly became one of the most popular actresses of the day, famously playing Perdita in The Winter’s Tale for a rapt audience that included the Prince of Wales, who fell madly in love with her. She later used his copious love letters for blackmail.This authoritative and engaging book presents a fascinating portrait of a woman who was variously darling of the London stage, a poet whose work was admired by Coleridge and a mistress to the most powerful men in England, and yet whose fortunes were nevertheless precarious, always on the brink of being squandered through recklessness, excess and passion.In Perdita, Paula Byrne, the Sunday Times bestselling author, presents a fascinating portrait of Mary Robinson, a woman who was as much a victim of her own reckless passions as she was a darling of the London stage. From her scandalous love affair with the Prince of Wales to her precarious existence on the brink of ruin, this biography is a testament to the excess and passion of late-eighteenth-century England.For fans of Lucy Worsley (Jane Austen at Home), Anne De Courcy (Snowdon), Olivia Laing (The Lonely City), Colm Tóibín (The Master), and Devoney Looser (The Making of Jane Austen).
