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Lord Chesterfield: His Character and Characters
Lord Chesterfield His Character and Characters Author:Colin Franklin This narrative weaves together an examination of one of the 18th century's leading figures with some of Chesterfield's prose which has either been out of print or never before published. It includes an essay, of which only a fragment has appeared before, on the mistresses and sexual tastes of George II. Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Che... more »sterfield, is generally remembered for his letters to his illegitimate son, indiscreetly published in the year after his death. In much of this book, the author is more concerned with a series of "characters" - the modern word is profiles - which Chesterfield wrote privately about those eminent contemporaries whom 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 the survival of the "characters", which were intended for oblivion, is traced. The author also examines the character of Lord Chesterfield, finding him more vulnerable and deserving of sympathy than the conventionally accepted verdict.« less