The Great Man: Sir Robert Walpole - Scoundrel, Genius and Britain's First Prime Minister

I have to agree with some of the previous comments: unreadable, and shame on you Edward Pearce. I was about 30 pages in when I found myself checking to see if the book had been published by a major publishing house and had had an editor, or if, as it seemed to me, it had been a piece of un-edited vanity publishing. I was quite shocked to see it was under the imprint of Jonanthan Cape - shame on them too!

Pearce says in his introduction that he really enjoyed writing this book, and I think this is probably the key to what is wrong with it. His approach seems to be to plough through sources and put down every tid bit he personally finds interesting, and not do the work thinking through how to present a coherent narrative. Rather than using detail to add colour to a scholarly perspective on a complex subject, he rattles off page after page of detail, principally the actions of lots of bit-players in the parliamentary politics of the time, and seems to think that scholarship consists of drawing clunking analogies to modern British politics or offering waspish judgements of the character flaws of these many bit-players.

The unreadability comes from a combination of countless new names appearing every page, devoid of narrative context, written in a style of knowing, meandering sentences where Pearce cannot resist any temptation to make an ex-cathedra judgement or a waspish aside.

And as has been commented already, Walpole himself is almost completely absent from the book. I gave up at page 150, but by then there was barely the slightest sense for the man Walpole, his character, his personal life, the nature of his friendships etc. Quite strange really, and I think testament to the lack of real work put in by Pearce. It is a very difficult task to bring a man and his time to life in a few hundred pages, and there is a real art to writing a good historical biography. To say this doesn't even begin to get close is an understatement.

Lost Opportunity (1/1 people found this helpful)

There is certainly a need for a one volume biography of Sir Robert Walpole. Unfortunately this is unsatisfying. Firstly, it is difficult to read and I had to force myself to get to the end. Coxe's biography of Walpole, although over 200 years old, is far better. Secondly, there are numerous factual errors. To take one, Pearce mentions that Stanhope was appointed Captain General following Marlborough's death. Stanhope predecessed the Duke and was never Captain General. Another example is that Pearce thinks Bolingbroke was in exile for decades after 1715, yet he was back in Britain in the 1720s and early 1730s. And there are mnay others. Annoyingly, Pearce swallows Jacobitwe propaganda and uncritically refers to the Duke of Cumberland as the Butcher, a very one sided and partial interpretation. Finally, there does not seem much new in this, and in the section about literature, I had the impression that this was the opposition to Walpole by numbers, with sections about The Beggar's Opera and Fielding's various attacks (incidentally Fiedling became a Walpole supporter in the 1740s). I was also surprised that Pitt advocated the death sentence to Walpole in the 1740s, yet Walpole's son, Horace, later referred to Pitt as one of the five greatest men of the period (Horace was very hostile towards his father's enemies). Pearce does not resolve this conundrum; perhaps he is unaware of it.

The Great Man; Sir Roberts Walpole (0/2 people found this helpful)

The content of this book is comprehesive but I am afraid the writing,"?journalese", makes it very difficult to read: long and convoluted sentences.
It compares very unfavourably with Douglas Hurd and William Hague.

One of the worst written biographies...EVER! (3/9 people found this helpful)

This book is a total disgrace. Pearce has written interesting works in the past, but this so-called biography of Walpole is barely literate. The English is so poor that the reader will be struggling to get past the first couple of chapters.

What were the publishers thinking about when they allowed this rubbish to go to print in this state? Have they stopped employing editors and proof readers? Who knows?

Anyway, believe me, this book will not improve your knowledge of Sir Robert Walpole at all. Instead you will spend hours re-reading passages and trying to make sense of them. It is so very, very badly written. Frankly, if you want that sort of mental exercise you would find it cheaper to by a decent puzzle book.

I hope that the publishers do not re-print this work unrevised in paperback as that will only leave more readers feeling equally fleeced. Take my advise, save your money and frustration and leave this rubbish well alone. You may think that I am being harsh and unfair, but you wouldn't if you attempted to read this rambling nightmare of a book.

Shame on you Edward Pearce.

In Defence of Pearce (if not Walpole) (1/2 people found this helpful)

I'll try to balance out the very negative comments on this book with some praise.
First of all some of the criticisms are justified to an extent...Walpole doesn't appear as often as you would expect, and Pearce's prose is, to use an eighteenth century word, "singular". My own criticism of the book is that it is certainly not balanced. Of the two adjectives in the subtitle of the book, scoundrel is clearly demonstrated, but genius hardly so. Walpole emerges as a lucky, vindictive chancer

So what are we left with? A superb account of the statesmen of the era; the depictions of such characters as Bolingbroke, the Duke of Newcastle and Henry Pelham are brilliantly sketched out as well as that of George I (much kinder than most accounts) and George II (somewhat harsher). The great events are narrated in an exciting and readable form, considering their complex nature - the Glorious Revolution, the succession of George I, the South Sea Bubble, and the fall of Walpole.

I would say it's worth a read, though I maybe in the minority here.

The Great Man: Sir Robert Walpole - Scoundrel, Genius and Britain's First Prime Minister

Edward Pearce

Reader Reviews:

Unreadable (2/2 people found this helpful)

Lost Opportunity (1/1 people found this helpful)

The Great Man; Sir Roberts Walpole (0/2 people found this helpful)

One of the worst written biographies...EVER! (3/9 people found this helpful)

In Defence of Pearce (if not Walpole) (1/2 people found this helpful)

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