The Age of Scandal focuses on the period in late 18th-century England following the Age of Reason—a period characterized by dilettantism, material comfort & eccentricity. Based on writings by Horace Walpole & other literate recorders, White has constructed a “little scrapbook of a nostalgic Tory.” He describes the eccentricities of the 18th-century Royal Family, the fashions of the nobility—the powdering of wigs, eating, drinking, medicine, birthday parties, theater & pronunciation; attitudes toward religion & sport; and above all, the outrageous gossip circulating in literary circles.