04552nam 2200625 a 450 991045579450332120200520144314.00-520-92370-71-59734-805-810.1525/9780520923706(CKB)111090860414136(EBL)223301(OCoLC)475927547(SSID)ssj0000220019(PQKBManifestationID)11196528(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000220019(PQKBWorkID)10143060(PQKB)10661663(StDuBDS)EDZ0000056011(MiAaPQ)EBC223301(DE-B1597)520083(OCoLC)70732870(DE-B1597)9780520923706(Au-PeEL)EBL223301(CaPaEBR)ebr10048743(EXLCZ)9911109086041413620001122d2001 ub 0engurcn|||||||||txtccrThe Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd[electronic resource] forgery and betrayal in eighteenth-century London /Donna T. Andrew and Randall McGowenBerkeley University of California Pressc20011 online resource (376 p.)Description based upon print version of record.0-520-22062-5 Includes bibliographical references (p. 325-334) and index.Front matter --Contents --Acknowledgments --Introduction --One. To The Hanging Tree --Two. Alarming Crimes And Unsettling Stories --Three. The Press And The Case --Four. Passing Fair --Five. Fashion And Its Discontents --Six. Private Credit And Public Confidence --Seven. Debating The Law --Eight. Writing Her Life: Mrs. Rudd's Life Stories --Nine. Mrs. Rudd On Trial --Ten. "If Innocents Should Suffer" --Eleven. Looking Back --Epilogue --Abbreviations --Notes --Bibliography --IndexThe Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd tells the remarkable story of a complex forgery uncovered in London in 1775. Like the trials of Martin Guerre and O.J. Simpson, the Perreau-Rudd case-filled with scandal, deceit, and mystery-preoccupied a public hungry for sensationalism. Peopled with such familiar figures as John Wilkes, King George III, Lord Mansfield, and James Boswell, this story reveals the deep anxieties of this period of English capitalism. The case acts as a prism that reveals the hopes, fears, and prejudices of that society. Above all, this episode presents a parable of the 1770's, when London was the center of European finance and national politics, of fashionable life and tell-all journalism, of empire achieved and empire lost. The crime, a hanging offense, came to light with the arrest of identical twin brothers, Robert and Daniel Perreau, after the former was detained trying to negotiate a forged bond. At their arraignment they both accused Daniel's mistress, Margaret Caroline Rudd, of being responsible for the crime. The brothers' trials coincided with the first reports of bloodshed in the American colonies at Lexington and Concord and successfully competed for space in the newspapers. From March until the following January, people could talk of little other than the fate of the Perreau's and the impending trial of Mrs. Rudd. The participants told wildly different tales and offered strikingly different portraits of themselves. The press was filled with letters from concerned or angry correspondents. The public, deeply divided over who was guilty, was troubled by evidence that suggested not only that fair might be foul, but that it might not be possible to decide which was which. While the decade of the 1770's has most frequently been studied in relation to imperial concerns and their impact upon the political institutions of the day, this book draws a different portrait of the period, making a cause célèbre its point of entry. Exhaustively researched and brilliantly presented, it offers both a vivid panorama of London and a gauge for tracking the shifting social currents of the period.Trials (Forgery)EnglandLondonForgersGreat BritainElectronic books.Trials (Forgery)Forgers345.42/0263Andrew Donna T.1945-1050495McGowen Randall1948-1050496MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910455794503321The Perreaus and Mrs. Rudd2480312UNINA