Countess or commoner; fraulein or fraud; wife or whore. Truth is the story that sells best.
In 1663, ‘Countess Maria von Wolway’ arrives in Restoration London, fleeing scandal in Cologne, determined to author a new life.
Maria lives on credit by flaunting jewels and staging correspondence concerning delivery of her estate. She draws the attention of an ambitious and charismatic man, John Carleton who, egged on by his greedy father, Lord Carleton, sets about courting her, faking his own fortune to impress her.
John and Mary enter a game of mutual deception that sparks genuine attraction. They dazzle Restoration society, and become media darlings. Before long their adopted personas have become real. They are London’s most fashionable couple, society is there for their taking.
Can they maintain the deceit, or will their pasts catch up with them? Who gets to decide what’s real and what’s fake?
‘I had rather dissolve into atoms than own the stories laid upon me, for those supposed misdemeanours dishonour my sex. How ready they were, the good people of London, to believe what damned me most. Twenty pamphlets a week, a thousand prints each, they told more lies about me than there are cracks in these prison walls. I trace them daily. Who’d question a verdict made official in print, or trade scandal for dull, wizened fact? Who’d buy truth, when lies cost less and shine more?
‘They said I am Mary Moders, alias Mary Steadman. They said that Maria von Wolway never existed, and so Mary Carleton cannot. They called me Fräulein, then they called me fake. They called me Countess, then cozener. Wife, then whore. And for all the things they called me, I stood trial for my life.
‘Despite its inherent disadvantage, truth demands to be told. So, though it has never been my ambition to see my name in print (I am not so vain), I am compelled to defend myself that you, dear reader, might name me rightly, and restore my reputation to its due honour.
‘Remember, truth is for scholars, lies are for coin. It is incumbent upon us all to discern one from the other.’