SCAPEGOAT EB
eBook - ePub

SCAPEGOAT EB

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

SCAPEGOAT EB

About this book

*PLUTARCH AWARD FOR THE BEST BIOGRAPHY OF 2024*

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE DUFF COOPER PRIZE*

'SUBLIME' A NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

'STUNNINGLY GOOD' THE TIMES BEST HISTORY BOOKS 2024

'COMPULSIVE' A PROSPECT BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

'BRILLIANT' A SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR 2024

'A delicious, grippingly paced tale of rogues, riotous sex, regicide and realpolitik'INDEPENDENT BEST BOOKS FOR CHRISTMAS

'This is the page-turner that Buckingham's short, racy life deserves'DAILY TELEGRAPH

'Vivid, erudite and sympathetic … The Scapegoat shows that [Hughes-Hallett's] eye for the seamy realities of an extraordinary life is as sharp as ever' THE TIMES

'Lord Buckingham rockets off the page of this gloriously epic, seductively detailed biography' OLIVIA LAING

As King James I's favourite, Buckingham was also his confidant, gatekeeper, right-hand man and lover. When Charles I succeeded his father, he was similarly enthralled and made Buckingham his best friend and mentor. A dazzling figure on horseback and a skilful player of the political game, Buckingham rapidly transformed the influence his beauty gave him into immense wealth and power. He became one of the most flamboyant and enigmatic Englishmen at the heart of seventeenth-century royal and political life.

With a novelist's touch, Lucy Hughes-Hallett transports us into a courtly world of masques and dancing, exquisite clothes, the art of Rubens and Van Dyck, gender-fluidity, same-sex desire and appallingly rudimentary medicine. Witch hunts coexisted with Francis Bacon's empiricism and public opinion was becoming a political force. Falling from grace spectacularly, Buckingham came to represent everything that was wrong with the country.

From kidnappings and murder plots to men weeping in Parliament over civil liberties, The Scapegoat navigates love, war-fever and pacifism in a society on the brink of cataclysmic change. In this immersive and authoritative account, Hughes-Hallett summons an era that still resonates today.

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'Written with such verve and invention … Fascinating book' TOM SUTCLIFFE, BBC RADIO 4's FRONT ROW

'The Scapegoat brilliantly dramatises the complex and glittering Duke of Buckingham and the political and sexual intrigue of the court of James I. Hughes-Hallett combines the instincts and talents of a novelist with a historian's vivid sense of period and social change' COLM TÓIBÍN

'A flamboyant character, an epic rise and tragic fall, brought to life with intelligence, tenderness and profound scholarship' ADAM ZAMOYSKI

'Buckingham's rise and fall is as old as Tiberius' love for Sejanus and as contemporary as a celeb crash-and-burn. Hughes-Hallett is a matchless historian with an unfailing eye for the revealing detail' SUE PRIDEAUX

'A true Jacobean drama, except bloodier and sexier. Lucy Hughes-Hallett writes with gusto and insight' PAUL THEROUX

'Compulsively readable and elegantly written … [Lucy Hughes-Hallett] has brought Buckingham gloriously alive' FINANCIAL TIMES

'Crisp and vivid … The story is a tragic one, no less so for being told here with verve, erudition and empathy' NEW STATESMAN

'Richly multilayered … Hughes-Hallett proves herself alive to the nuances of gender and sexuality in the early seventeenth century…refreshingly light and contemporary, while at the same time suited to the seventeenth century' TLS

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Yes, you can access SCAPEGOAT EB by Lucy Hughes-Hallett in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & Historical Biographies. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Note to Readers
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. A Note on Naming
  7. A Note on Sources
  8. INTRODUCTION
  9. I: PEACE
  10. II: SPAIN
  11. III: WAR
  12. Acknowledgements
  13. Notes
  14. Select Bibliography
  15. List of Illustrations
  16. Picture Section
  17. Index
  18. Also by Lucy Hughes-Hallett
  19. About the Author
  20. About the Publisher