Lady Worsley's Whim: An Eighteenth-Century Tale of Sex, Scandal and Divorce - Couverture rigide

'As a historian and a storyteller, Hallie Rubenhold is in a league of her own. She keeps you glued to the very last page when, exhausted, exasperated and elated, you can at last put the book down and get yourself some sleep' Literary Review

'A fabulous story and Rubenhold tells it beautifully' Daily Telegraph

It was the divorce that shocked Georgian England. She was a spirited young heiress. He was a handsome baronet with a promising career in government. Their marriage had the makings of a fairy tale but ended as one of the most salacious and highly publicised scandals in history.

For over two hundred years, the previously un-told story of Lady Worsley, her vengeful husband and her lover, Maurice George Bisset lay forgotten. Now Hallie Rubenhold, in her impeccably researched book, throws open a window to a rarely seen view of Georgian England, coloured by passion, adventure and the defiance of social convention. The Worsleys' story, their struggles and outrageous lifestyles promises to shock even the modern reader.

'The story of the Worsley divorce has never been revealed before, and Hallie Rubenhold tells it with panache. Her account of the elopement is gripping, but this is far more than an 18th-century bodice-ripper. Rubenhold combines narrative skill with historical expertise, and she traces the knife-edge that women walked between social success and public disgrace with subtlety and assurance' Spectator

In February 1782, England opened their newspapers to read the details of Sir Richard Worsley vs. George Maurice Bisset, a Criminal Conversation trial in which the aggrieved Sir Richard attempted to sue his wife's lover for an astronomical £20,000 in damages. In the course of the proceedings, the Worsleys' scandalous sexual arrangements, voyeuristic tendencies and bed-hopping antics were laid bare. The trial's verdict shocked society, but not as much as the unrepentant behaviour of Lady Worsley who since her elopement with Captain Bisset, defied all social convention by publicly flaunting her sexual conquests and mercilessly baiting her husband in the press.

Lady Worsley's Whim is the story of a marriage between two opposing personalities; a stoic, art-collecting empiricist and a passionate romantic. Their tale is driven by the consequences of a terrible error of judgement made at a bath house on a summer's afternoon. The aftermath of this 'whim' altered their lives, throwing them both onto paths of obsession, revenge, financial ruin, foreign adventure and revolution. For over two hundred years, their story lay buried in long forgotten newspapers, overlooked pamphlets, yellowing satires and uncatalogued letters. No other author, either past or present, has ever told it before. Impeccably researched, and written with great flair, this book presents a rarely seen picture of aristocratic life in the Georgian era.