Fantasies and Realities of Poldark's Cornwall

In the wildly popular British TV series Poldark, the fantasies of Georgian England and its historical realities aren’t far apart. Captain Ross Poldark, a fictional character from a series of novels by British author Winston Graham, returns defeated after fighting in the Revolutionary War to discover his Cornwall estate in ruins and his former fiancée engaged to his cousin. He decides to reopen his family’s copper mines, marry his kitchen servant, and fight for economic and social justice for his employees.

In a free lecture, University of Maryland scholar Julie Taddeo will share her insights about Poldark and late 18th-century England during the tumultuous birth of the Industrial Revolution. She will delve into political corruption, conflicts over religion and marriage, and the social customs and fashions of daily life in Cornwall and London. Taddeo has published articles and books about Edwardian London and British period drama TV series.