{"product_id":"the-perils-of-politeness","title":"The Perils of Politeness","description":"\u003cp\u003eStatesman, wit, writer and arbiter of taste, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield was one of the most influential – and divisive – figures of Georgian Britain. As Lord Macaulay later observed, Chesterfield was ‘what no person in our time has been or can be, a great political leader and at the same time the acknowledged chief of the fashionable world’.\u003cbr\u003eThis is the first full-scale biography of Chesterfield in nearly a century, drawing on previously unpublished material to reassess his political career, literary output and enduring fascination. Richard Wendorf offers a nuanced reading of Chesterfield’s celebrated letters to his son and examines his embodiment of the virtues and perils of politeness, revealing a figure whose views on sex, marriage, women and hypocrisy continue to provoke lively debate.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57507910779253,"sku":"9781836392637","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781836392637.jpg?v=1787043058","url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/products\/the-perils-of-politeness","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}