Rating: 
Summary: Lurid Historical Potboiler -- and True!
Review: _Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth Century America_ (Simon & Schuster) by Alan Pell Crawford reminds us that there was scandal in the age of our Founding Fathers, and among those in government. If you want to read a lurid potboiler containing mischief that would make J. R. Ewing blush, but is all true, this is your book. It contains reports of seductions, incest, child murder, family infighting, the decay of a prominent aristocratic family, drug addiction, and general scoundrelism. All true, and all occurring in the public eye, and among supporters and family members of Thomas Jefferson. It is a historical feast of scandal. The main character, Nancy Randolph, was accused at various times by rumor, and by her family, of seducing her cousin Richard Randolph, helping Richard murder the infant, and then murdering Richard himself. Many of the charges came from Richard's brother Jack, a fiery orator and congressman who grew increasingly unstable in matters concerning Nancy, perhaps because she had herself spurned him. Nancy was therefore unmarriageable, but that didn't bother the fun-loving, cheerful patriot Gouverneur Morris, who took her on as housekeeper, and then married her, giving her two decades of true happiness. Nancy was a resourceful woman and this amazing chronicle of scandal brings her out of oblivion into our own times, times that are no better or worse than her own.
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