An apology for the life of Major General G—, written by himself. Containing A full Explanation of the G—nn—g mystery, and of the Author's Connexion with Mr. D—ber—y's family of Soho-Square

About this book

8vo. pp. [2], 114, f. [1] (blank). Half-calf on marbled boards. Place of publication within printed ornament on title page. Only early edition, one of two ‘variant issues’ distinguished by ESTC (priority not assigned), without half-title and terminal advertisement leaf. A partly incredible Casanovan tale of libertine pursuits over a period of 40 years (‘I have during that period enjoyed the favours and full possession of the most accomplished and lovely women of the age’), ending with Gunning’s ruinous trial for ‘crim. con.’ with Rebecca Duberley, the wife of his business partner, and their flight to Naples before the Court’s extravagant award of £5000 to the plaintiff. Before going into special cases the author (Gunning or his impersonator) presents a schedule, ordered by social standing and nationality, of 145 unnamed women, from duchesses, countesses, viscountesses, and baronesses to aldermen’s wives, peers’ daughters, maids of honor, old maids, and ‘undistinguished widows [...] of all countries, and of all ages and descriptions,’ whom he has bedded. Furthermore ‘my [115] descendants are almost as numerous as my conquests,’ including two cardinals, one bishop, one duke, nine baronets, three physicians, seven barristers, and a Jewish rabbi, plus ‘thirty-seven non-descripts’ and ‘eleven German counts, every one of whom has killed his man, to prove the purity of his blood, and the antiquity of his family.’ And that is without mentioning ‘any of my progeny in the female line,’ since ‘I have by neglect entirely forgot their number, as well as their virtues.’ What Horace Walpole called ‘the Gunningiad’ involved the further scandals of the Major General’s family: in 1768 he had married Susannah Minifie, one of two novelist sisters, famed for her ultra-sentimental fiction and rhapsodic prose style, who bore him one child only, a daughter Elizabeth, who became a prolific novelist too, like her mother, her mother’s sister, and her ‘silver-fork’ aunt, Lady Charlotte Bury. Her own romantic and pre-marital adventures came to involve broken engagements to the marquesses of both Lorne (1768-1839) and Blandford (1766-1840), and a widely-publicized forgery of a letter (1791) from the Duke of Marlborough, which her mother blamed on her vengeful husband (see Bib# 6239897/Fr# 482.2 in this collection), with voluminous recrimination on both sides in print. See the full account by G. Grey (ed.), An apology for the life of Major General Gunning: containing a full explanation of the Gunning mystery, and of the author’s connexion with Mr. Duberley’s family of Soho-Square. Richmond, 2012 (see Bib# 6239894/Fr# 482.6). See also ESTC, T65770. Click here to view the Johns Hopkins University catalog record.