In her novel Graham Hamilton (1822), Lady Caroline Lamb drew on her privileged life and notorious affairs to produce one of the period’s richest accounts of decadence and debauchery. Tracking her young hero’s journey from humble Scottish origins to London high society to exile in the Americas, Lamb boldly critiques Regency-era extravagance and its global economic underpinning. Graham Hamilton directly engages key tropes of the novel of manners and the marriage plot, but with a sardonic edge entirely Lamb’s own. Though published more than two hundred years ago, Graham Hamilton speaks to current re-evaluations of celebrity culture and the media environments that make and destroy reputations and lives.
This edition’s critical introduction and appendices ground Graham Hamilton in its historical context, showcasing how Lamb adapts conventions of popular literature as well as contentious debates about gender, class, and fame.
Comments
“Lindsey Eckert’s new edition of Graham Hamilton brings Lady Caroline Lamb and her glittering, gritty, tragic world of Regency England to vibrant life. Too long overshadowed by her own celebrity, Lamb emerges as a powerful writer, a trenchant critic of the hypocrisies of the aristocratic class to which she belonged. This edition’s elegant introduction, explanatory notes and contextual materials all help place Graham Hamilton where it belongs: in classrooms and among the important novels of the British Romantic age.” — Andrew Stauffer, University of Virginia
“This new edition of Graham Hamilton is a triumph for researchers and teachers alike. Eckert restores the significance of this novel by placing it in conversation with Lamb's other writings and the culture of celebrity and scandal that defined her public life. Particularly illuminating is Eckert’s attention to the novel’s generally positive reception, especially in comparison with Glenarvon, and to the precarious position of women caught in the glare of public life at the time. Accompanied by a rich selection of contextual materials and scrupulous editorial notes throughout, this edition is a boon to Lamb scholarship and the study of Romantic-era celebrity. Its intertextual emphasis makes it a gift to our students and classrooms.” — Omar F. Miranda, University of San Francisco
“Graham Hamilton, Lady Caroline Lamb’s second novel, was much more warmly received in her own day than its scandalous forerunner Glenarvon. In this engaging edition, Eckert not only invites us to read Graham Hamilton as a noteworthy contribution to the history of the Romantic-era novel but also explores the ways in which it speaks to our own celebrity-obsessed culture. The introduction and thoughtfully chosen appendices provide the contexts necessary to introduce students to Lamb’s work and make a strong case for reading Lamb as a versatile and historically significant writer—not just a celebrity author.” — Pam Perkins, University of Manitoba
