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LONDON LADIES by Lucy Ponte Stebbins

LONDON LADIES

By

Pub Date: Feb. 14th, 1952
Publisher: Columbia University Press

A period portfolio of profiles which with a delicacy of delineation and fastidiousness of phrase sets off the charms and crucities of six eighteenth century ladies. They are Martha Bay, the milliner's apprentice who became the mistress of the courageous, macrupulous Earl of Sandwich, bore him four sons and a daughter, and was murdered by an infatuated clergyman: Elizabeth Inchbold, an actress, whose beauty could not redeem a cold, cold heart: Amelia Opie, a writer, whose frivolous, gentle nature won the affection and friendship of many; the ""sorrowful"" Siddoss sisters who fell in love with the inconstant Sir Thomas Lawrence and even in death did not relinquish their rivalry; Sorothea Lieven, the Russian Counters whose arrogance was subdued by her casual rejection by Metternich, the loss of her two young sons and her eminence; and Jane Welsh Carlyle whose empty life only reflected her disinclination for happiness and her inability to love... A petitpoint of character and conduct which is intelligently observed and gracefully accomplished.