Paul Clifford

In the shabby alehouses and glittering rooms of Bath, a gang of thieves turns crime into comedy, politics, and performance. Clifford emerges as the most dangerous sort of leader: charming, self-possessed, and keenly aware that authority can be won by wit, rhetoric, and theatrical confidence rather than virtue. Around him, Long Ned, Old Bags, Fighting Attie, Paul Lovett, and Augustus Tomlinson boast, bicker, and stage mock elections, dividing loot and assigning new robberies with mock-heroic flair while parodying Whigs, Tories, and public duty. Yet beneath the swagger runs a more intimate current. Clifford's secrecy, aliases, and fear of exposure reveal a man torn between ambition and shame, while his growing attachment to Lucy Brandon gives the outlaw world a pulse of genuine feeling. A ballad, a blind musician's devotion, and a series of charged conversations lead him to defend the tenderness hidden inside even a criminal heart. As revelry gives way to strategy, and social satire shades into romance, the novel blends roguish adventure with sharp-eyed commentary on class, corruption, and desire. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.