Book shakes dust from 18th-century scandals, long-held myths

Sex, Scandal, and Celebrity in Late Eighteenth-Century England, a new book by Matthew J. Kinservik, University of Delaware English professor and director of graduate studies, reveals the seamier side of politics and theatre in late 18th-century England. Yet, despite the fact that intrigue typically sells well, the book didn't start out to be a work on scandal, according to Kinservik, and it wasn't until he struck the equivalent of literary gold that he altered his original course of research.

“The book began as a biography of an 18th-century actor and theatre manager named Samuel Foote,” Kinservik said. “But as soon as I got into researching the end of his career, which ended with a scandalous trial for attempted sodomy, I realized there was an entire book telling that story. I'd never done any work previously on sexuality studies or the legal history of marriage, but that all became necessary background to telling Samuel Foote's case.”

After discovering early in his research several glaring inconsistencies between early manuscripts by Foote and those actually set into print, Kinservik followed a paper trail of clues that led him from the Huntington Library in San Marino to libraries at Harvard and Yale to the House of Lords Record Office in the High Court of Parliament in London.

Along the way, he uncovered even more discrepancies that fueled his research and inspired him to challenge long-held misperceptions, among them the fact that Samuel Foote “was not a martyr.”

Kinservik, who said that the book's publisher, Palgrave Macmillan, debated before listing the book in the category of literature, said that he wrote the material “with a generalist reader in mind,” and learned to alter his writing style in the process.

Now in the process of planning another “spin-off” book, Kinservik said he enjoyed writing for a generalist audience so much that he plans to continue with that style. “I enjoyed writing this book a lot,” he said. “It's a pretty gripping narrative. And I think more people will end up reading this than they will anything else I've written. In writing this book I had to think about why it might be interesting to people who aren't just like me, and given the new economy of University presses, I think that's very healthy.”

Sex, Scandal, and Celebrity in Late Eighteenth-Century England is available through Amazon.com, the University Bookstore and other local book vendors.

Article by Becca Hutchinson