"London Clubs" is a book about the origins, development, and structure of the most important London clubs, such as St. James', Ad Libitum, White's, Crockford's, and others. The author traces the growth of the club movement from its birth in pubs and taverns to the establishment of standardized organizations with clear structure, elections, committees, and rules. Notably, during the creation of this book, the author interviewed secretaries of some of the clubs mentioned, who supplied him with interesting information and facts not previously open to the public.
This is the first scholarly treatment of the history of public eating in London in the Victorian and Edwardian eras. The quotidian nature of eating out during the working day or evening should not be allowed to obscure the significance of the restaurant (defined broadly, to encompass not merely the prestigious West End restaurant, but also the modest refreshment room, and even the street cart) as a critical component in the creation of modern metropolitan culture. The story of the London restaurant between the 1840s and the First World War serves as an exemplary site for mapping the expansion of commercial leisure, the increasing significance of the service sector, the introduction of technology, the democratization of the public sphere, changing gender roles, and the impact of immigration. The London Restaurant incorporates the notion of 'gastro-cosmopolitanism' to highlight the existence of a diverse culture in London in this period that requires us to think, not merely beyond the nation, but beyond empire. The restaurant also had an important role in contemporary debates about public health and the (sometimes conflicting, but no less often complementary) prerogatives of commerce, moral improvement, and liberal governance. The London Restaurant considers the restaurant as a business and a place of employment, as well as an important site for the emergence of new forms of metropolitan experience and identity. While focused on London, it illustrates the complex ways in which cultural and commercial forces were intertwined in modern Britain, and demonstrates the rewards of writing histories which recognize the interplay between broad, global forces and highly localized spaces.
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.
Public life in Great Britain underwent a major transformation after the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts in 1828 and the passage of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829, which eliminated the requirement that men in public positions swear to uphold the doctrines of the Anglican Church. According to Lubenow (Stockton College), these legislative changes initiated a fundamental reallocation of power, opening many careers to men of talent and educational qualifications, including those whose perspectives and intellectual dispositions led them to question the validity of uniform religious dogma. Lubenow identifies members of the Benson, Strachey, Balfour, Lyttelton, and Sitwell families among the "Men of Letters" who epitomized the 19th century's new secular meritocracy, noting that when religious uniformity was removed as a requirement for positions in the public sphere, religion became more important, if more fluid, in the lives of such Britons. Thus, men of intellectual merit, rather than only those from the more conservative landowning or military traditions, were able to rise in politics, civil service, the clergy, the professions, and the universities, taking their liberal values regarding liberty, moral cultivation, and philosophy into the wider public sphere. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty. Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty. Reviewed by E. J. Jenkins.
