Publisher's Synopsis
'"The story of Nell Gwyn ..." originally appeared in serial form in Gentleman's Magazine. "It must be read (says the author) as a serious truth, not as fiction-as a biography, not as a romance. It has no other foundation than truth, and will be heard of hereafter only as it adheres to history." That it will be heard of hereafter there seems little reason to doubt. A dish of this nature cooked in this fashion is too rare not to be well-relished. The life of a royal courtesan from the graphic pen of an accomplished antiquarian, combining the seductions of low comedy with the attractive graces of light literature, need not despair of a market. It would seem, indeed, that "distance ends enchantment to the view;" for though, Nell was but a strumpet, on these pages she is nothing short of a goddess, fascinating you with her wit and beauty as she did her paramours; coaxing you with her liberality as she did "the London Apprentices;" and even gulling you with her orthodox cant as she did the grim Puritans who patronised her as the "Protestant Mistress!" But, for all that, you cannot find in your heart to deal harshly with the "pretty witty Nell." You laugh at her jokes, and condole with her in her sorrows; for she was not a stranger to grief, nor, finally, it is said, to "repentance." But be that as it may, you cannot but admit that she had many good qualities; and you remember that, in addition to other praiseworthy public actions, she was the virtual founder of Chelsea Hospital-a deed of charity sufficient to cover all her sins, if such you have the courage to call them, for, 'ere you get through the story, you are convinced, she is better than could have been expected under the circumstances which, from first to last, victimized her. And as for the "Merry Monarch," he is a wise and witty, free and easy soul-not a bad man after all! Such is the moral atmosphere which encircles the "Story;" and, if ever its moral influence cost the author much consideration, his misgivings were hushed by the plausible excuse that "what so good a man as Archbishop Tenison (who preached Nell's funeral sermon) did not think an unfit subject for a funeral sermon, need not be thought an unfit subject for a book." Review from "The Westminster Review," Volume 58.
