Description
Book SynopsisIn 1898, an elderly widow, Anna Maria Druce, came to the British court with an astonishing request. She stood among the overflowing pews of St. Pauls Cathedral claiming that the merchant T. C. Druce, her late father-in-law, had in truth been a secret identity for none other than the deceased and enormously wealthy 5th Duke of Portland. Maintaining her composure amid growing agitation from the clutch of lawyers, journalists, and curious onlookers crowded into the church, Mrs. Druce claimed that Druce had been the duke's alter ego and that the duke had, in 1864, faked the death of his middle-class doppelgänger when he grew tired of the ruse. Mrs. Druce wanted the tomb unlocked and her father-in-law's coffin exhumed, adamant that it would lie empty, proving the falsehood and leaving her son to inherit the vast Portland estate. From that fateful afternoon, the lurid details of the Druce-Portland case spilled forth, seizing the attention of the British public for over a decade.
As the Victoria era gave way to the Edwardian, the rise of sensationalist media blurred every fact into fiction, and family secrets and fluid identities pushed class anxieties to new heights. The 5th Duke of Portland had long been the victim of suspicion and scandalous rumors; an odd man with a fervent penchant for privacy, he lived his days in precisely coordinated isolation in the dilapidated Welbeck Abbey estate. He constructed elaborate underground passageways from one end of his home to the other and communicated with his household staff through letters. T.C. Druce was a similarly mysterious figure and had always remained startlingly evasive about his origins; on his arrival in London he claimed to have "sprung from the clouds."
Drawing from revelations hidden within the Druce family tomb in the chilly confines of Highgate Cemetery, Piu Marie Eatwell recounts one of the most drawn-out sagas of the era in penetrating, gripping detail. From each thwarted investigation and wicked attempt to conceal evidence to the parade of peculiar figures announcing themselves as the rightful heir, Eatwell paints a portentous portrait of England at the dawn of the Edwardian age.
Few tales—be they by Charles Dickens or Wilkie Collins, The Importance of Being Earnest or The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde—could surpass the bizarre and deliciously dark twists and turns of the Druce-Portland affair. A mesmerizing tour through the tangled hierarchies of Edwardian England, The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse illuminates the lies, deceit, and hypocrisy practiced by "genteel" society at the time—and their inevitably sordid consequences.
Trade Review"A juicy narrative history packed with revelations about unsavory goings-on among the upper classes in late Victorian England." -- Kate Tuttle - Boston Globe
"As the best books in this genre do, Eatwell's narrative expands to give us a broad view of the cultural and social circumstances existing in England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries…Her book is also a reminder that no matter what stories have captured popular tastes right now…nothing quite takes your breath away like a Novemberish tale that turns out to be real." -- Nick Owchar - Los Angeles Review of Books
"A superb unraveling of a sensational mystery—and an absolutely gripping read." -- David King, best-selling author of Death in the City of Light
"A lively account of the light shone on the lies, deceit and hypocrisy of Victorian society." -- Times (London)
"A riveting true crime from yesteryear." -- Better Homes & Gardens
"Fusing an excellent historical eye with an engaging narrative…Eatwell's history is equal parts bizarre and literary, presenting the emphasis without bias so that, until the very end, it’s unclear who’s telling the truth. This true crime story would be perfect fodder if
Law & Order ever decides to launch a 19th-century spinoff." -- BUST
"It’s
Downton Abbey meets
The Addams Family in Piu Marie Eatwell’s
The Dead Duke, His Secret Wife, and the Missing Corpse, a delightfully offbeat history of a bizarre Edwardian legal case that became tabloid fodder and kept the British public spellbound for a decade…. Eatwell’s marvelous book reads like a Wilkie Collins gothic novel, but at times truth is stranger than fiction." -- Wilda Williams - Library Journal (Editor's Fall Picks)
"Madness, guilt, eccentricity, subterfuge—Piu Marie Eatwell's study of the Druce case has it all: the eccentric dukes, liaisons below stairs, extraordinary claims in courts of chancery, exhumations, high-Victorian catacombs, famous detectives. Like all good whodunits, the story of the Duke of Portland and his fortune makes compelling reading." -- M. J. Trow, author of the Inspector Lestrade detective series
"An eccentric duke, a mysterious claimant to the title, a long legal battle to open a grave in pursuit of a huge fortune—it's a thoroughly engrossing story, in the best traditions of Mr. Whicher." -- Nicholas Best, author of Five Days That Shocked the World
