Perils of Politeness

Richard Wendorf was previously Professor of English and of Art History at Northwestern University, as well as Director of the Boston Athenaeum and the American Museum and Gardens, Bath. He is the author of the award-winning Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Painter in Society (1996).

There was a time when every cultured individual read Lord Chesterfield’s letters. Hopefully Richard Wendorf’s elegant, sympathetic and beautifully written book will revive the habit. - Steven Parissien, author of Interiors: The Home since 1700 and Building BritanniaRichard Wendorf has written a masterful and highly readable account of a major figure whose engagements, in politics, society and culture, illuminate many aspects of the British eighteenth century. Viewing Chesterfield’s life in its immediate contexts and on its own terms rather than from the perspective of posthumous controversies, Wendorf meets the difficult challenge of orchestrating the diverse forms of Chesterfield’s prominence with all their complexity, ambiguity and tension. The research is remarkably thorough and impressively fresh, relying on previously ignored documents and on specialist scholarship that has emerged since the last complete biography long ago. The book builds on but extends significantly previous accounts of Chesterfield’s careers. As a literary and art historian, Wendorf gives full attention not just to the earl’s social and political life but to the diversity and full extent of both his published and unpublished writings as well as to the material and spatial dimensions of the life. In addition, the volume includes many pertinent images illustrating Chesterfield’s social, literary and cultural setting. - Lawrence Klein, Emeritus Fellow, Emmanuel College, CambridgeAfter two generations of neglect, Richard Wendorf has restored Lord Chesterfield to a central position. This brilliant book does justice to his manifold achievements, as well as analysing the issues on which he pronounced. It is based on meticulous research and contains many new finds in previously overlooked archives. Overall, it must be considered the single most important study of the man and his work that has ever been written. - Pat Rogers, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Liberal Arts, University of South Florida, and author of The Poet and the Publisher