Abstract
John Sadleir was found dead on Hampstead Heath on 16 February 1856, having taken prussic acid after the collapse of the Tipperary Bank exposed the extent of his fraudulent speculations in banks, and in railway and mining companies. In an appendix to this book, James O'Shea states that Sadleir served as the model for Charles Dickens's swindler Merdle, in Little Dorrit (1855-57), and as the model for similar shady financiers in books by Charles Lever, Joseph Hatton, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, and possibly even Anthony Trollope. This information, plus a title such as Prince of Swindlers, might lead the reader to expect a book which focuses primarily on Sadleir as a perpetrator of spectacular financial frauds—but such an expectation would be disappointed. [End Page 525]
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