The Kit-Cat Club

by Ophelia Field

Ophelia Field’s ‘Kit-Cat Club’ is a story of a changing time in 17th-century Britain, during the reigns of Queen Anne and George I, when a group of men and their enterprising initiatives paved the way for new literary and political viewpoints, born out of the most unexpected circumstances. The Kit-Cat Club was founded in the late 1690s when Jacob Tonson, a bookseller of lowly birth, forged a partnership with the pie-maker Christopher (Kit) Cat. What began as an eccentric publishing rights deal – Tonson paying to feed hungry young writers and so receiving first option on their works – developed into a unique gathering of intellects and interests, then into the unofficial centre of Whig power during the reigns of William & Mary, Anne and George I. With consummate skill, Ophelia Field, author of the acclaimed biography of the first Duchess of Marlborough, ‘The Favourite’, portrays this formative period in British history through the club’s intimate lens. She describes the vicious Tory-Whig ‘paper wars’, the mechanics of aristocratic patronage, the London theatre world and its battles over sexual morality, England’s union with Scotland, Dublin society governed by a Kit-Cat and the hurly-burly of Westminster politics. Field expertly unravels the deceit, rivalry, friendships and fortunes lost and found through the club, along with wonderful descriptions of how its alcohol-fuelled, all-male meetings were conducted. Tracing the Kit-Cat Club’s far-reaching influence for the first time, this group biography illuminates a time when Britain was searching for its own identity.

Genres: History, Politics, Nonfiction, British Literature

524 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Ophelia Field was born to American parents in Australia in 1971. She read English at Christ Church, Oxford, and gained a Master's in Development Studies at the London School of Economics. She subsequently worked as a policy analyst for several refugee and human rights organizations. Until 2008, she was Director of the Writers in Prison Programme of English PEN. Her first book, The Favourite, was published to wide acclaim in 2002, followed by The Kit-Kat Club in 2008.

Reviews

[Courtney Johnston · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just couldn't get into it. Really wanted Field to paint me a vivid picture of the atmosphere of the Kit-Cat Club in the first 50 pages, but instead got a rather dry prologue about Dryden's funeral and then a long explication about three figures, mostly focused on their patronage and political networks.

Abandoning books always feels like a personal failure, but with a to-read list like mine, I ain't got no time to waste.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Field argues that the Kit-Cat Club, a small group of men in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, contributed enormously to the development of modern Britain. They left behind few official records of their club, nothing like those of later groups like the Scriblerians or Johnson and Reynolds' Club (although Godfrey Kneller did do a series of portraits of most of the members), so she has to piece together a history of their formation, meetings, and activities. Members included John Dryden (his funeral provides Field with her first great setpiece), Addison and Steele, Vanbrugh, Congreve, Matthew Prior (before his political betrayal of his friends and exit from the club), the publisher Jacob Tonson (the closest thing to an official leader the group had--it was for him the portraits were painted, for example, and his house provided an important meeting place in their later years), numerous powerful Whig noblemen, and Walpole. They were instrumental in forming the Whig response to the Glorious Revolution and the reshaping of British government, monarchy, and institutions that followed 1688 and later took full form under Walpole, the first man to fill the role later called prime minister. But their interests extended far beyond politics; or, rather, they saw no firm division between politics and culture, so necessarily worked in both. According to Field, their main purpose (apart from lots of drunken socialising and the giving and receiving of patronage) was the formation of British identity and culture. They helped to broaden political and cultural discourse beyond traditional elites, were involved in theatre, publishing, the development of the periodical as an essential vehicle of public discourse, wrote essays, poems, and plays, sponsored musical events and theatrical productions, were active in architecture (public and domestic), landscape gardening, and the visual arts--in all of which they "sought to develop hybrid, anglicized styles that combined neoclassicism with more romantic elements drawn from England's heroic past. The Club's patronage in pursuit of this goal contributed significantly to the privatization of British culture" (381). As the Whig consensus and control over government hardened after George I came to the throne, personal divisions grew, and key members died or withdrew from public life, the group disappeared by the late teens/early twenties; their last official meeting may have been in 1719, although individual associations and activities continued after that date. Field's book is necessarily wide-ranging, and it does a good job of depicting the political and cultural ferment of these years.

[Jane Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent way in to the culture and politics of the late 17th and early 18th century. Field rather plays down what would later be considered outright corruption in bestowing political offices, but it was particularly interesting to learn that figures we now regard as the big names of literature were also in government.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, wonderfully readable account of the influence the Kit-Cat Club had over British politics and culture during the largely neglected reigns of William III and Queen Anne. Packed with information and quotes from the men who justly regarded themselves as the wits of the age.

[Tom Stallard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very evocative and well written overview of the political machinations that were associated with the members of the Kit-Cat club, that brings to life the back-room dealing in early 1700's England, with all its skulduggery and debauchery.

[Jack Coleman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historical Novel revealing the cultural and political influences of the Whig Kit Cat Club members
circa 1695-1725.
One of my favorite line in the book is when one of her contemporary friends describes the English character
as "muted courage at best and emotional autism at worst.
Library copy

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks very intriguing based on an Economist review.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are interested in the personalities and idelogies of Georgian politics, this is for you.