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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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The Rake's Progress
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(1733–5, Sir John *Soane's Museum)
Series of eight paintings by *Hogarth, published as engravings in 1735. They tell the story of Tom Rakewell, who inherits a fortune, loses it through bad company and a fashionable life, gains another by marrying an old one-eyed heiress, loses that by gambling, and ends up as a debtor in the *Fleet prison and then as a lunatic in *Bedlam. Sarah Young, an innocent girl whom he seduced as a young man and then abandoned, makes several attempts to save him. The story was made into a ballet in 1935, choreographed by Ninette *de Valois to music by Gavin Gordon; and into an opera in 1951, with music by Stravinksy and libretto by W.H. *Auden and Chester Kallman.
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