Synopses & Reviews
Mistress Peachum was Lavinia Fenton, an 18th-century actress who was the original Polly Peachum in John Gays celebrated play, The Beggars Opera. Both Lavinia and the play were overnight sensations; however, she enjoyed only a few months of fame before she caught the eye of the Duke of Bolton, a married aristocrat, and her life of glamour became ever more scandalous. With a cast of politicians and pickpockets, highwaymen and whores, Mistress Peachum's Pleasure brilliantly illuminates the interplay between the theater and the social and political climate of 18th-century London.
Review
“Hiltons vivid portrait of the upwardly mobile Lavinia Fenton brilliantly realizes the political, social, criminal, and theatrical nature of 18th-century London.” —History Today
Synopsis
Raised in a Charing Cross coffee-house, Lavinia became an actress, and though she was a newcomer to the stage when she was chosen to star as Polly. Both Lavinia and the play were overnight sensations. This is the biography of the first 'Polly Peachum', the 18th century actress who became the Duchess of Bolton, Lavinia Fenton.