Items related to John Law: A Scottish Adventurer of the Eighteenth Century
John Law of Lauriston blazed like a meteor over Europe and America in the early eighteenth century before falling to earth.
At the summit of his reputation in 1720, a period lasting just over one hundred days, Law was the most powerful man in France after the Regent, the Duke of Orléans. He was also the richest private citizen in Europe.
For France, brought to the brink by the wars and extravagances of the Sun King, Louis XIV, the Scotsman's financial innovations were a lifeline, but had for consequence a stock-market boom that came spectacularly to grief. The Mississippi Bubble, as it came to be known, left in France a fear of financial modernity that crippled her in her rivalry with Great Britain.
Over the centuries, John Law has been portrayed as a crook, a rake and a madman. James Buchan shows Law was none of those but a powerful mind in pursuit of a vision of public prosperity that overrode all ties to country, property or happiness. Many of his ideas are now the plainest orthodoxy.
Using Law's letters and writings, neglected family papers in Scotland and English county towns, bank ledgers in Genoa and Holland, notarial records and secret police reports in France and Venice, as well as the archive of the Jacobite court in exile, James Buchan resurrects Law's vagabond career
The result is a glimpse of one of the most astonishing lives ever lived.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Review:
A wonderful portrait of Law's Paris and Europe, of the Regent and the Jacobites. I loved it and could hardly put it down. (Philip Mansel)
Excellent . . . Buchan's book is both scrupulously researched and humanely curious . . . It has Jacobite politics, elopements, prisons breaks and court scandal . . . much to savour. (Stuart Kelly Scotland on Sunday.)
In Buchan, Law has at last found a biographer who combines an expert understanding of finance, a profound knowledge of 18th-century history, and a novelist's gift for anecdote and pace. The result is an immensely valuable and enjoyable book that conjures a narrative worthy of Robert Louis Stevenson out of a deeply impressive harvest of primary archival research. It is history of the highest class, and will take its place deservedly as the standard biography of Law. (Felix Martin Financial Times.)
Erudite, elegantly-written . . . Full of interesting people, variously disgraceful or brilliant, and of compelling stories overlapped . . . Buchan is possessed of a remarkably well-furnished mind. His story is a tremendous one. (Lucy Hughes-Hallett New Statesman.)
One of our finest writers. (John Burnside The Times.)
I don't believe this country has a better writer to offer than James Buchan. (Michael Hofmann London Review of Books.)
An utterly compelling and captivating work . . . he brings a natural storyteller's relish to his subject (Irvine Welsh Guardian, on The Capital of the Mind.)
Mr Buchan has a clear writing style, a light touch and a irreverent sense of humour . . . he makes difficult subjects accessible and, sometimes, poetic. (Economist.)
In Mr. Buchan's able hands, Smith and his words come across as they should, in all their lucidity and elegance. (William Grimes New York Times, on Adam Smith: and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty.)
James Buchan's elegant prose sparkles on the page. (New Statesman.)
Book Description:
Excellent . . . Buchan's book is both scrupulously researched and humanely curious . . . It has Jacobite politics, elopements, prisons breaks and court scandal . . . much to savour. (Stuart Kelly Scotland on Sunday.)
In Buchan, Law has at last found a biographer who combines an expert understanding of finance, a profound knowledge of 18th-century history, and a novelist's gift for anecdote and pace. The result is an immensely valuable and enjoyable book that conjures a narrative worthy of Robert Louis Stevenson out of a deeply impressive harvest of primary archival research. It is history of the highest class, and will take its place deservedly as the standard biography of Law. (Felix Martin Financial Times.)
Erudite, elegantly-written . . . Full of interesting people, variously disgraceful or brilliant, and of compelling stories overlapped . . . Buchan is possessed of a remarkably well-furnished mind. His story is a tremendous one. (Lucy Hughes-Hallett New Statesman.)
One of our finest writers. (John Burnside The Times.)
I don't believe this country has a better writer to offer than James Buchan. (Michael Hofmann London Review of Books.)
An utterly compelling and captivating work . . . he brings a natural storyteller's relish to his subject (Irvine Welsh Guardian, on The Capital of the Mind.)
Mr Buchan has a clear writing style, a light touch and a irreverent sense of humour . . . he makes difficult subjects accessible and, sometimes, poetic. (Economist.)
In Mr. Buchan's able hands, Smith and his words come across as they should, in all their lucidity and elegance. (William Grimes New York Times, on Adam Smith: and the Pursuit of Perfect Liberty.)
James Buchan's elegant prose sparkles on the page. (New Statesman.)
The mesmerising story of the eighteenth-century financier of genius who rose from humble Scottish origins to control of the purse-strings of the most powerful nation in Europe
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherMacLehose Press
- Publication date2018
- ISBN 10 0857053388
- ISBN 13 9780857053381
- BindingHardcover
- Edition number1
- Number of pages528
- Rating
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