num_pages: 355
description: Barnes &amp; Noble Discover Great New Writers"Mrs. Fox," a Frenchwoman with vague claims to a noble past that preceded unsavory scrapes with the authorities in two countries, arrives in 18th-century London with her maid in low style and immediately sets out to establish herself in society. What she lacks in money and connections she more than makes up for in wit and artful duplicity, and for a primary mark she soon settles on the depraved Urban Fine, Earl Much -- a man very much her equal in battle.Like many a successful procuress before her, Mrs. Fox targets the basest human instincts as the most direct means of acquiring adequate influence to propel her into the highest social circles. She is at home in brothels and country manors like, disparate venues that are nonetheless equally populated by a colorful cast of childlike noblemen, dishonest clergymen with virginal daughters, solemn American painters, and a malignant aristocrat brimming with evil intent.Through a series of letters and journal entries, Mrs. Fox relates her progress to a friend, the Dutch philosopher Van Essel, who knows firsthand the matchless destructive force of Earl Much. Van Essel fears Mrs. Fox has finally bitten off more than she can chew, and that his love may not be enough to save her. A Factory of Cunning is a masterfully wrought and shrewdly humorous portrait of deception, vice, and cruelty, expertly rendered in the genteel language and manners of Hanoverian England. (Summer 2005 Selection)
language: English
title: A Factory of Cunning
titlecomplete: A Factory of Cunning
genres: Fiction, Historical, British Literature, 18th Century, Georgian, Historical Fiction
ratings_count: 283
publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt