author
Baron John Hervey Hervey
1696–1743
A sharp-tongued observer of court life, this 18th-century English writer is best remembered for memoirs that helped shape later views of George II's reign. He moved at the center of politics, gossip, and literary feuds, and wrote with an insider's eye for power and personality.
1 Audiobook
The Scribleriad, and The Difference Between Verbal and Practical Virtue
by Anonymous, Baron John Hervey Hervey
About the author
Born in 1696, Baron John Hervey—better known as John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey—was an English courtier, Whig politician, and political writer. He was educated at Westminster School and Clare College, Cambridge, and later became a prominent figure at the court of George II and Queen Caroline.
Hervey is chiefly remembered for his lively, detailed memoirs of court and political life. Published after his death, Memoirs of the Reign of George the Second became an important source for historians because of its vivid portraits of the people and rivalries around the early Hanoverian court. Contemporary accounts also remember him as a wit, and as someone deeply involved in the literary quarrels of his time.
He died in 1743. Although he held political office and moved in powerful circles, his lasting reputation rests on the writing he left behind: intelligent, partisan, and full of revealing detail about 18th-century England.