The Smart: The True Story of Margaret Caroline Rudd and the Unfortunate Perreau Brothers

Published by Chatto & Windus ,2001, hardcover, illustrated, 321 pages, index, condition: as new.

Britain was on the verge of war with America, yet foreign affairs were far from the thoughts of Londoners, spellbound by the proceedings of two spectacular trials, one involving a strange pair of twins, and the other an elegant young woman. Caroline Rudd had left Ireland for London where she came to enjoy a glamorous life as a high-class pr*****e. Her mesmerizing charisma attracted the identical but opposite Perreau twins,  one a sober merchant, the other a raffish gambler. Caroline and the twins forged bonds and lived in luxury until everything collapsed like a house of cards and charges of forgery were laid. Meticulously researched, this evocative history brilliantly bridges the gap between aristocracy and underworld, as eighteenth-century society is drawn into the most scandalous financial ?smart? of the age.