Book Description

A father of modern celebrity, King George IVof England is contextualized against the cultural backdrop of his age: The Regency. Already a byword for taste and extravagance when he became Prince Regent in 1811, George IV remains as vivid and notorious a figure today as he was in his own time. He provided the monarchs who followed him with a lesson in how and how not to conduct oneself. In many ways a strikingly modern sovereign, he attempted to manipulate his public image to divert attention from the less savory aspects of his private life. His ultimate mistake was to actually believe in the image he had manufactured rather than in the depressing reality. Steven Parissien brings us George IV against the cultural backdrop of his age, showing how his legacy still affects our contemporary view of the monarchy.