The Kit-Cat Club

by OpheliaField (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2009

  $3.25

  Ophelia Field's `Kit-Cat Club' is a story of a changing time in 17th-century Britain, during the reigns of Queen Anne and George I, when a group of men and their enterprising initiatives paved the way for new literary and political viewpoints, born out of the most unexpected circumstances.

  The Kit-Cat Club was founded in the late 1690s when Jacob Tonson, a bookseller of lowly birth, forged a partnership with the pie-maker Christopher (Kit) Cat. What began as an eccentric publishing rights deal - Tonson paying to feed hungry young writers and so receiving first option on their works - developed into a unique gathering of intellects and interests, then into the unofficial centre of Whig power during the reigns of William & Mary, Anne and George I.

  With consummate skill, Ophelia Field, author of the acclaimed biography of the first Duchess of Marlborough, `The Favourite', portrays this formative period in British history through the club's intimate lens. She describes the vicious Tory-Whig `paper wars', the mechanics of aristocratic patronage, the London theatre world and its battles over sexual morality, England's union with Scotland, Dublin society governed by a Kit-Cat and the hurly-burly of Westminster politics.

  Field expertly unravels the deceit, rivalry, friendships and fortunes lost and found through the club, along with wonderful descriptions of how its alcohol-fuelled, all-male meetings were conducted. Tracing the Kit-Cat Club's far-reaching influence for the first time, this group biography illuminates a time when Britain was searching for its own identity.

• New

  Paperback
  2009

  $19.32

  Ophelia Field's `Kit-Cat Club' is a story of a changing time in 17th-century Britain, during the reigns of Queen Anne and George I, when a group of men and their enterprising initiatives paved the way for new literary and political viewpoints, born out of the most unexpected circumstances.

  The Kit-Cat Club was founded in the late 1690s when Jacob Tonson, a bookseller of lowly birth, forged a partnership with the pie-maker Christopher (Kit) Cat. What began as an eccentric publishing rights deal - Tonson paying to feed hungry young writers and so receiving first option on their works - developed into a unique gathering of intellects and interests, then into the unofficial centre of Whig power during the reigns of William & Mary, Anne and George I.

  With consummate skill, Ophelia Field, author of the acclaimed biography of the first Duchess of Marlborough, `The Favourite', portrays this formative period in British history through the club's intimate lens. She describes the vicious Tory-Whig `paper wars', the mechanics of aristocratic patronage, the London theatre world and its battles over sexual morality, England's union with Scotland, Dublin society governed by a Kit-Cat and the hurly-burly of Westminster politics.

  Field expertly unravels the deceit, rivalry, friendships and fortunes lost and found through the club, along with wonderful descriptions of how its alcohol-fuelled, all-male meetings were conducted. Tracing the Kit-Cat Club's far-reaching influence for the first time, this group biography illuminates a time when Britain was searching for its own identity.