BEAUTY AND THE TRAITOR: The Story of Mrs. Henedict Arnold

by Milton Lomask ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 20, 1967

The comment of a British officer ""Supple, pink-checked and blond, with oh la la! what a figure!"" establishes Peggy Arnold's claim to the first part of the title; her husband's right to the latter half is undisputed; the author's thesis is that she sparked his defection. Margaret Shippen, the nineteen year-old Philadelphia belic, was attracted to the widower twice her age because she sensed a kindred temperament. Both had a penchant for extravagant living and needed the ""admiration and envy"" of others. If she did not suggest the traitor role to Arnold (and the author thinks she probably did), he required her emotional support to make the initial decision and to carry it through. Arnold, however, carried on the final negotiations alone. When at last he sailed down the river to sell out his country, there was little left for her to do but have hysterics. The historical assumptions and the character analyses are supported by evidence of varying strength as the author crosses and recrosses the line between fact and supposition: her loyalty to the King is well proven, but her expectation that treason would make her ""the wife of a peer, addressed and deferred to by her old friends as 'Lady Margaret speculative. There are delightful descriptions of the Shippen household based on old family letters and some flowery romanticising of emotions, incidents, and motives. A readable but uneven recreation of a cloudy conspiracy.

Pub Date: March 20, 1967

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macrae Smith

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1967

Categories: NONFICTION