Description: THE POISONED TABLE portrays a passionate rivalry between fictional actress Isabel Graves and real-life Shakespearian stage sensation Frances Anne Fanny Kemble. In this tale of ambition, romance, and betrayal, Graves harbors early resentment, convinced that Kembles family theatre connections assured Fannys selection for the lead role in Romeo and Juliet despite Isabels superior beauty and talent. The novel traces their unconnected adventures and acting careers in the Old and New Worlds, as well as their introduction to the horrors of American slavery and to romance with one of the wealthiest men in America, Pierce Butler, owner of Georgia cotton and rice plantations and master of more than 800 slaves. Kemble, an ardent abolitionist, falls in love with Butler and marries him before she discovers his wealth derives soley from slave labor. Kemble chronicles her visit to the South in Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839, which was published in England in 1863.
