Halsband (Robert), 1914-1989
Lord Hervey; eighteenth-century courtier
New York, Oxford University Press, 1974
(21 cm), xiv (2), 380 pp., [15] leaves of plates. Publisher’s cloth, pictorial dust jacket. - Acclaimed biography of the enigmatic Hervey, Vice-Chamberlain of George II’s household, Privy Councillor, and Whig pamphleteer, one of the eighteenth century’s most colourful figures. “Halsband has avoided the temptation to whitewash Lord Hervey. He has produced a sympathetic portrait, which acknowledges the warts on Hervey’s character and is quite frank about his homosexual and heterosexual adventures and yet which pays tribute to his intelligence and political acumen.” (H. T. Dickinson, in History, volume 60, 1975, p.304). “It is not a book which will be quickly superseded. Before the task needs to be attempted again, Mr. Halsband’s work will be among treasured antiquities – if indeed the printed book itself is not a relic by then” (from a review by Pat Rogers, in The Review of English Studies, volume 25, 1974, pp.477-479). ¶ Ink annotation on lower endpaper and another in margin p.378. Dust jacket torn, minor losses.