The two decades after Waterloo marked the great age of foreign fortune hunters in England. Each year brought a new influx of impecunious Continental noblemen to the world's richest country, and the more brides they carried off, the more alarmed society became. The most colourful of these men was Prince Hermann von Puckler-Muskau (1785-1871), remembered today as Germany's finest landscape gardener. In the mid-1820s, however, his efforts to turn his estate into a magnificent park came close to bankrupting him. To save his legacy his wife Lucie devised an unusual plan: they would divorce so that Puckler could marry an heiress who would finance further landscaping and, after a decent interval, be cajoled into accepting Lucie's continued residence. In September 1826, his marriage dissolved, Puckler set off for London. Drawing on the daily letters sent from England to his ex-wife and other manuscript sources in the Puckler Archive in Brandenburg, Peter James Bowman gives blow-by-blow accounts of Puckler's courtships with the daughters of a physician, an admiral, a Scottish baronet, an East India Company stockholder and a retail jeweller. The story is enriched with details of his social life among the resident diplomats, his gambling and money troubles, his love affairs with a French seamstress and a German opera singer, and the hours he spent with the capital's prostitutes. Puckler is the most intelligent of the overseas visitors who noted their impressions of Regency England. His matrimonial quest brings him into contact with such luminaries as Walter Scott, George Canning, Princess Lieven, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, Beau Brummell and John Nash. The object of many rumours and caricatures, the prince sticks doggedly to his task for nearly two years. And just when it seems that he has failed, England fills his coffers in the most unexpected way, and in doing so launches him on a new career. In telling the story of Puckler's adventures in the context of the trend for Anglo-European marriages based on the exchange of a title for money, The Fortune Hunter writes a new chapter in the history of England's relationship with its Continental neighbours.

About the Author
PETER JAMES BOWMAN studied Modern Languages at Oxford University and completed a PhD on the German novelist Theodor Fontane at Cambridge University. A translator and independent scholar, he lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Reviews
"An entertaining story intelligently and fluently retold." - TLS "[A] sprightly and engaging book of more than anecdotal interest." - Spectator "Bowman has trawled deep in the archives to brush the dust off Prince Pueckler's portrait and restore him to us as a man of singular charm, culture and good humour... Bowman, a scrupulous historian with an eye for lively detail, performs a splendid job." - Literary Review "Bowman's treatment of his elusive subject is masterly, not to say brilliant, and his research has been admirably thorough. But what is more remarkable is his ability to turn that heavy-duty labour into eminently readable prose." - Journal of European Studies "An account both thorough and elegant." - Sachsische Zeitung "Bowman's prose is entertaining and assured. He clearly holds his incorrigible subject in great affection and ensures that his reader does too, in spite of Pueckler's foibles. " - The Tablet "Valuable and very enjoyable." - Jane Austen Society Newsletter "A scholarly and entertaining account of an extraordinary character." - Hampstead & Highgate Express



Book Information
ISBN 9781909930032
Author Peter James Bowman
Format Paperback
Page Count 256
Imprint Signal Books Ltd
Publisher Signal Books Ltd