THE DEAD DUKE, HIS SECRET WIFE, AND THE MISSING CORPSE: AN EXTRAORDINARY EDWARDIAN CASE OF DECEPTION AND INTRIGUE.

New York: Liveright, 2015. 338 pp, 9 1/2" H. B&w illustrations. "In 1898, an elderly widow, Anna Maria Druce, came to the British court with an astonishing request. She claimed that the merchant T.C. Druce, her late father-in-law, had in truth been a secret identity for 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 he had, in 1864, faked the death of his middle-class doppelganger when he grew tired of the ruse. She 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 deatails of the Druce-Portland case spilled forth, seizing the attention of the British public for over a decade. Few tales could surpass the bizarre and deliciously dark twists and turns of the Druce-Portland affair. A mesmerizing tour through the tangled hierarchies of (Victorian and) Edwardian England, (this book) illuminates the lies, deceit, and hypocristy practiced by 'genteel' society at the time - and their inevitably sordid consequences." Very light browning to the top of the text block. Dust jacket is Near Fine.. Not Signed. First American Edition. Hard Cover. Very Good+/Near Fine.