Set in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, the book satirized the Whig Holland House circle,[2][3] while casting a sceptical eye on left-wing politics.
[6] Glenarvon corrupts the innocent young bride Calantha (Caroline herself), leading to their mutual ruin and death.
[7] The book is full of wildly improbable melodramatic scenes: Calantha's infant brother, the heir to a dukedom, is apparently murdered on the orders of their aunt Lady Margaret, to ensure that her son will inherit the estates; yet later we are told that the child is still alive.
[7] Society's leaders did not greatly mind reading about her love affairs, but they deeply resented the vicious and easily recognisable portraits of themselves in the book, which were its chief selling point.
One of those thus satirised, Lady Jersey, took her revenge by barring Lamb from Almack's, the centre of fashionable life, a sign that she was socially an outcast.