Lord Chesterfield
Lord Chesterfield

Author: Colin Franklin

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 1993

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13:

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This enjoyable narrative weaves together a new examination of one of the eighteenth century's leading figures with some of Chesterfield's finest and most entertaining prose which has been either out of print or never before published. It includes a scandalous essay of which only a fragment has appeared before on the mistresses and sexual tastes of George II. Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, is generally remembered (or forgotten) for letters to his illegitimate son, indiscreetly published in the year after his death. In much of this book, Colin Franklin is more concerned with a series of Characters - the modern word is Profiles - which Chesterfield wrote privately about those eminent contemporaries he had known intimately, from the King and Queen to such figures as Walpole, Newcastle, Pitt, Bolingbroke, Arbuthnot and Pope. The publishing history of Chesterfield's letters and dramatic survival of the Characters (which were intended for oblivion) is traced and told. The author also takes a new look at the character of Lord Chesterfield, finding him more vulnerable and deserving of sympathy than the conventionally accepted verdict.

Lord Chesterfield's Letters
Lord Chesterfield's Letters

Author: Lord Chesterfield

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2008-09-11

Total Pages: 481

ISBN-13: 0199554846

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`My object is to have you fit to live; which, if you are not, I do not desire that you should live at all.' So wrote Lord Chesterfield in one of the most celebrated and controversial correspondences between a father and son. Chesterfield wrote almost daily to his natural son, Philip, from 1737 onwards, providing him with instruction in etiquette and the worldly arts. Praised in their day as a complete manual of education, and despised by Samuel Johnson for teaching `the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing-master', these letters reflect the political craft of a leading statesman and the urbane wit of a man who associated with Pope, Addison, and Swift. The letters reveal Chesterfield's political cynicism and his belief that his country had `always been goverened by the only two or three people, out of two or three millions, totally incapable of governing', as well as his views on good breeding. Not originally intended for publication, this entertaining correspondence illuminates fascinating aspects of eighteenth-century life and manners. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.