by Lisa Hilton (Author)
Mistress Peachum was Lavinia Fenton, an eighteenth-century actress who was the original Polly Peachum in John Gay's play The Beggar's Opera and became the Duchess of Bolton. Raised in a Charing Cross coffee-house, Lavinia became an actress, and though she was a newcomer to the stage when she was chosen to star as Polly, her combination of a sweet voice, a pretty face and a knowledge of the seamier side of London life made the role her own. Both Lavinia and the play were overnight sensations, but she enjoyed only a few months of fame before she caught the eye of the Duke of Bolton, a married, indolent and childless aristocrat. The Duke was determined to make her his mistress, and she agreed to elope with him, exchanging the rackety glamour of life as London's most celebrated actress for twenty years of retirement. Lavinia gave the Duke three sons, but when she was left a widow she chose her own way once more, and scandalously threw away their fortunes on her younger lover.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 240
Edition: New
Publisher: Phoenix
Published: 02 Mar 2006
ISBN 10: 0753820498
ISBN 13: 9780753820490
Book Overview: By one of Britain's finest writers on female historical figures 'Hilton's book is refreshing both in the lightness of its touch and the vividness of its descriptions...This is a portrait of an age, written with gaiety and an irreverence that would have delighted John Gay and his friends.' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times 'Hilton's vivid portrait of the upwardly mobile Lavinia Fenton brilliantly realizes the political, social, criminal and theatrical nature of these dazzlingly contradictory times' History Today '[A] scintillating read and vivid picture of the age' Sunday Express 'A smart and racy history of the 18th century presented through the success of The Beggar's Opera' Frances Wilson, Sunday Telegraph
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