This study details the domestic life and private friendships of Edmund Burke from 1750 until his wife Jane's death in 1812. While the events of Burke'e public life and his political theories are familiar to many, the private and domestic Burke is not. In many and complex ways Beaconsfield is an essential key to the Edmund Burke who defined himself as the embodiment of Cicero's ""new man"" and whose marital relationship with Jane Nugent Burke sustained, nurtured, and drove him throughout his political career.