The Prince Regent and His Circle:
In their own words
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Primary sources
Out of print
The Correspondence of George, Prince of Wales 1770-1812 (Cassell, 1968)
A Correct, Full, and Impartial Report, of the Trial of Her Majesty Caroline, Queen Consort of Great Britain: Before the House of Peers; On the Bill of Pains and Penalties … , edited by John Adolphus (William S Hein & Co., 2001)
The Greville Memoirs by Charles C F Greville (Batsford, 1963)
The Journal of Mrs Arbuthnot, 1820-1832, edited by Francis Bamford and the duke of Wellington (Macmillan, 1950)
The Journals and Letters of Fanny Burney (Madame d'Arblay), edited by Joyce Hemlow, Althea Douglas, Curtis D Cecil and Slava Klima (Clarendon Press, 1972)
Unpublished
James Harris, duke of Malmesbury, diaries and correspondence
Sir William Knighton, diary
Princess Dorothea Lieven, private letters
'Memoir of Baron Pergami, written by himself', 1820
Other books
George IV by Christopher Hibbert (Penguin, 2002) £10.99
What was it about George IV that made private friends, as well as political adversaries, so quick to see the weaknesses of the man and to ignore his qualities? This biography aims to reveal the clues behind such opinion.
George IV: The grand entertainment by Steven Parissien (John Murray, 2001) £14.99
Presents George IV against the cultural background of his age, showing how his behaviour affected the contemporary view of both the monarch and the monarchy, and how his energies and ambitions focused on the artistic, architectural and social splendour with which many now associate him.
High Society in the Regency Period: 1788-1830 by Venetia Murray (Penguin, 1999) £9.99
This social history chronicles the manners, morals and attitudes of everyone from dandies to pugilists, duchesses to courtesans. It also contains examples of the art of caricature, which flourished during the Regency, from artists such as Gillray and Cruikshank.
Napoleon and Wellington: The long duel by Andrew Roberts (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003) £8.99
A dual biography of the greatest opposing generals of their age, who ultimately became fixated with one another.
The Nunnery: The six daughters of George III by Janice Hadlow and Martin Davidson (HarperCollins, to be published in October 2004) £20
A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-83 by Paul Langford (Oxford Paperbacks, 1992) £18.99
Delving beneath the surface serenity of the age of elegance, Paul Langford reveals a world of simmering discontent in which evangelical enthusiasm clashed with scientific rationalism, aristocratic government with popular insubordination, industrial and imperial expansion with plebeian poverty, and sentimentality with utilitarian reform.
The Prince of Pleasure: The prince of Wales and the making of the Regency by Saul David (Little, Brown, 1998) £22.50
George IV was both a womaniser and a patron of the arts. The scandal culminated with his ongoing feud with his wife Queen Caroline, whom he attempted to try for adultery. The flip side was that he was one of the most cultured monarchs ever to sit on the British throne. This biography analyses this apparent disparity by dissecting George's unhappy relationship with his parents.
Regency Style by Steven Parissien (Phaidon, 1996) £22.95
A survey of the Regency house, from architectural shell to the smallest details of doors, furniture and wallpapers.
A Traitor's Kiss: The life of Richard Brinsley Sheridan by Fintan O'Toole (Granta Books, 1997). Out of print; may be available from libraries or second-hand bookshops.
Author of The School for Scandal and The Rivals, Sheridan was the quintessential dramatist-entrepreneur, an 18th-century wit and man about town, and one of the foremost politicians in Britain. A friend of the parliamentary radicals led by Fox, he sailed close to the wind of treason in his support for the United Irishmen. O'Toole shows how Sheridan's Irishness was a crucial factor in his drive for English literary and political success, and brings the two countries to life in an age of war and revolution, when London was becoming the capital of a huge colonial empire.
