The Smart: The True Story of Margaret Caroline Rudd and the Unfortunate Perreau Brothers - Hardcover

Bakewell, Sarah

3.46

37 ratings by Goodreads

9780701171094: The Smart: The True Story of Margaret Caroline Rudd and the Unfortunate Perreau Brothers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 070117109X ISBN 13: 9780701171094

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2001

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Britain was on the verge of war with America, yet foreign affairs were far from the thoughts of Londoners, spellbound by the proceedings of two spectacular trials, one involving a strange pair of twins, and the other an elegant young woman. Caroline Rudd had left Ireland for London where she came to enjoy a glamorous life as a high-class prostitute. Her mesmerizing charisma attracted the identical but opposite Perreau twins one a sober merchant, the other a raffish gambler. Caroline and the twins forged bonds and lived in luxury until everything collapsed like a house of cards and charges of forgery were laid. Meticulously researched, this evocative history brilliantly bridges the gap between aristocracy and underworld, as eighteenth-century society is drawn into the most scandalous financial smart of the age."

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

The Smart is a fascinating study of a notorious web of sexuality and conspiracy in which the "celebrated Mrs. Rudd" and the "unfortunate Perreau brothers"--identical twins with very different characters--take centre stage. Bakewell, a curator of early printed books in the medical history collection at the Wellcome Library, mines her sources with care. Old Bailey transcripts, James Boswell's diaries, pamphlets--both satirical and polemical--newspaper reports, the London Magazine: Bakewell is "hooked" by this strange, and much disputed, case. And she hooks her readers with a story told from different, often conflicting, points of view as her characters battle for their lives against the penal and legal systems of 18th-century London. A vivid portrait of that London is one of the great pleasures of this book, which tracks its protagonists through the city streets, its banks and its brothels. But, above all, The Smart is an exploration of a woman's life--its limits and potential tested, over and over again, by the extraordinary character of Caroline Rudd. "There is no getting away from the fact," Bakewell concludes, "that the fully fledged Caroline became a bad woman--or at least a dangerous one to know." Nevertheless, this is a book driven by sympathy for her--as well as the desire to untangle the enigma of her famous, sometimes fatal, attractions. --Vicky Lebeau

Review:

A fascinating story in the shady life and scandalous times of Caroline Rudd... gripping reading. "Daily Telegraph" Sarah Bakewell has written a scholarly biography that reads like a detective novel with a historical setting... full of sharp pen-portraits, lively asides and quirky details... every bit as colourful and enjoyable as the title suggests. "Independent" "From the Trade Paperback edition.""

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.