Like the seven rakes whose biographies make up this volume, much is promised but little is delivered. The characters appear with dark hints about their behaviour in the context of the times; they are described variously as "old women", a description which annoys me intensely and rather colours the book with a faint air of misogyny. What is a rake, anyway? In summary, generally it is a high-born male person or one who becomes wealthy and thus somehow more equal to the aristocracy, but with a self-destructive set of behaviours which in the end waste a potentially useful life. There is a strong sexual cast to the self-desctructiveness and the person seems to be British. The Earl of Rochester is a famous example.

I settled down on a wet Sunday, coffee nearby, to read what lessons there might be for modern civilisation in the rise and fall of the rakes described. Unfortunately I didn't find any, and I suspect modern life with its riots, destructive wars and catastrophic natural disasters provides far more unpleasantness than could these seven whose lives are dissected.

The book is sort of interesting, but without any big insights or indeed anything described in hushed tones which you don't see every night on the television news. ( )