Amphibious thing: The life of Lord Hervey

by Lucy Moore

Lord Hervey was one of the most controversial figures of the Georgian age. The consummate courtier - strikingly handsome, elegant and witty - he was both the favourite of the Queen and right-hand man to Walpole. Painted by Hogarth, satirized by Fielding and Pope, and confidant of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Hervey counted among his friends and enemies some of the most brilliant men and women of the age. Yet for all his hard-won public fame, there was a scandalous private side to Hervey. He was certainly a rake (rumour had it that he shared a mistress with the Prince of Wales), but such behaviour was quite normal among the 18th-century aristocracy. Less usual, however, was his ten-year affair with another man. From the outset, Hervey was fascinated by Stephen Fox. His engaging, delightfully witty letters reveal the depth of their passion for one another, and the lengths to which they were driven in order to escape detection. Finally, theirs became an "open secret", one of many factors that was to contribute to Hervey's downfall. In this biography, Lucy Moore brings to life an entire age, with its shimmering artifice and its poisonous deceit, its highly wrought melodrama and its grand passions.

Genres: History, Biography, Georgian, Nonfiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Lucy Moore was born in 1970 and educated in Britain and the United States before reading history at Edinburgh University. She is the editor of Con Men and Cutpurses: Scenes from the Hogarthian Underworld, and author of the critically acclaimed The Thieves Opera: The Remarkable Lives and Deaths of Jonathan Wild, Thief-Taker, and Jack Sheppard, House-Breaker (Viking 1996) as well as Amphibious Thing: the Life of a Georgian Rake (Viking 2000) and Maharanis: The Lives and Times of Three Generations of Indian Princesses (Viking 2004). Maharanis has been reprinted six times, was an Evening Standard bestseller, and the top selling non-fiction title in WH Smith on paperback publication in summer 2005.

Lucy is a regular book reviewer for the Observer and the Sunday Times. In April 2001, she was voted one of the 'Top Twenty Young Writers in Britain' by the Independent on Sunday and in the 'Writers' section of the New Statesman's 'Best of Young British' issue.

Television presenter work includes Nelson for Great Britons (BBC) and Kings in Waiting: Edward VII (BBC) plus a number of talking head appearances.

Reviews

[QOH · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't care about Will and Kate. I can't even stand to look at their airbrushed photos while I'm standing in line at the grocery store.

But give me a juicy, gossipy, political/court thriller from the eighteenth century? Yes, please. Lucy Moore is one of those writers I am always envious of, because she's barely older than I, and she has a seemingly effortless ability to showcase her scholarship. I could live to be 80 and not write half so well.

The "Amphibious" aspect of Lord Hervey was his bisexuality (he had plenty of offspring, but preferred men). Hervey was deeply in love with the brother of Henry Fox, and this relationship colored his professional career and ultimately helped sink it after the death of Queen Caroline (wife of George II). It seems for a nobleman, having sex with men was perhaps not such a terrible thing, but being deeply in love with a man was a different story.

It's a great book for understanding the early Hanoverian politics and the reality of life at court under George I and II. I confess I did get a little bored with who thought what about Hervey's sexuality and who was sleeping with whom and who schemed to get them in bed together, and ZOMG did you know Robert Walpole was totally envious of Lord Lincoln's massive penis? (You know, the stuff that would be all over Twitter if we brought the Hanoverian 21st century technology.)

But that aside, this book was great fun. Well worth hunting down.

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amphibious Thing is another Kindle book that I picked up on sale, though I was uncertain that I'd care much about the life of an early Eighteenth Century person I'd never heard of. Thankfully, the book is well-written and fairly engaging, even while wading through reams of surviving letters and other sources.

This is one of the better biographies I've read, as it does a very good job of both focusing on a particular topic, and not bouncing around much in time in order to do so. If you have no interest in the period, this book won't engender it, but it does provide a good look at the court of George II, and the ministry of Robert Walpole; and that latter is probably enough to get some people's attention. Reading it with a little knowledge of the period certainly helped my appreciation of the book.

[Karen Wellsbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

It seems funny rating a book like this in this way.
I assume that it historically factual, and the LM did her research, it feels like it is though, and I'm too lazy to find out.
Lord H was a pretty cool dude, with fingers in many pies, and a bit of a gossip, if he was around today he'd probably have some reality TV show, and would be a SM star, or else he'd be the faceless one actually running the country.

I found this at times fascinating, and then dull, but the fascinated won.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Describing Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson wrote, "Why, the man cannot drink tea without a stratagem." I do love those Augustan barbs. Almost as good as Congreve's line: There are snakes in his peruke!"
Lucy Moore does an excellent job here telling the story of that "amphibious thing," as Pope called him. Lord Hervey, courtier, politician, poet, bisexual - he was the Georgian age's Snap Queen, and best girlfriends with the Queen herself - Caroline, George II's wife. The insults fly at a stately pace in poems and letters with titles like "A Letter to a Noble Lord on the Occasion of Some Libels Written and Propagated at Court," or "Verses to an Imitator of the First Satire of the Second Book of Horace."
And then there is the Royal family. Yowsa. Prince Harry in a Nazi armband? Charles' tampon comment? Child's play compared to the spectacular, long-running soap opera of family disfunction that the Hanoverian princes brought with them to England. A most entertaining read.

[Antonia · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a lovely book! i had come across lord hervey's name once in a while in some other books so i thought i'd give this one a go and am sooooo pleased i did. it is divided into short chapters chronicling his life mainly relying on letters as sources. i just loved the literary references and wish to have read this book earlier when i took part in a seminar about 18th century literature. that aside, lucy moore's book is just so entertaining, easy to read and has a brilliant index to look up facts and figures after reading.
a perfect little book - at least if you did not know him before with lots of laughs and shaking of the head in disbelief along the way. :)

[Lauren Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Moore's biography was interesting but seemed somehow inconsequential in the choice of subjects. Hervey was interesting to some extent but perhaps not full-length book worthy. His treatment (or lack thereof) of his wife and children made him certainly less likeable. His children barely make a showing in the book.

[Victoria Schreiber · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5 ⭐️

This book is extremely enjoyable and the author manages to integrate the queerness perfectly into what you might call a "standard" historical biography. This biography (in contrast to some others I have read) was also easy to read while still containing a lot of historical depth. I also particularly enjoyed the well-sorted bibliography at the end which contained different sections for easy research.

[Nat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating but uneven book that includes some very interesting information but could have used a better editor - especially with the quotes from letters and journals. Huge sections are included that could have easily been pared down to just include the relevant information without the waffle.

[Margita · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent use of letters to portray character. Very fair look at a flawed courtier in the time of George II.

[Penny Hampson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very readable biography of Lord Hervey.

[Vikas Datta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliantly atmospheric account of the Hanoverian court and the epoch...