Restoration England witnessed an extraordinary flowering of literature, music, architecture, and science. At the center of the burgeoning cultural life of the age was John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester. A peerlessly witty satirist, Rochester epitomized the manners of the court of Charles II. But he was also a libertine and drunkard, a writer of scandalously offensive poetry who got himself banned from court. Rochester died of syphilis at the age of just 33, leaving behind him a mystery as to the true nature of his character. This is a compelling portrait of a remarkable yet complex man and of a cultural golden age that often spilled over into depravity, and the only biography of the Earl to date to use the uncensored poetry.