THE POISONED desk portrays a passionate contention among fictional actress Isabel Graves and real-life Shakespearean level sensation Frances Anne “Fanny” Kemble. during this story of ambition, romance, and betrayal, Graves harbors early resentment, confident that Kemble’s kin theatre connections guaranteed Fanny’s choice for the lead position in Romeo and Juliet regardless of Isabel’s more suitable attractiveness and ability. the unconventional strains their unconnected adventures and performing careers within the outdated and New Worlds, in addition to their creation to the horrors of yankee slavery and to romance with one of many wealthiest males in the USA, Pierce Butler, proprietor of Georgia cotton and rice plantations and grasp of greater than 800 slaves. Kemble, an ardent abolitionist, falls in love with Butler and marries him prior to she discovers his wealth derives completely from slave hard work. although happy to be separated from plantation existence at her husband’s Philadelphia domestic, Kemble consents to accompany him on his annual stopover at to examine his Georgia investments. Butler assures his spouse her apprehensions approximately slavery might be assuaged as soon as she sees firsthand its humane day-by-day operation. as a substitute, she is sickened and chronicles her stopover at in magazine of a place of abode on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839. This account, released in England in 1863, is usually credited with dissuading Britain from helping the Confederacy. in the novel is a play written through Graves’ lover. Set on a slave plantation, the plot portrays a dinner on the master’s desk and the toxic stipulations which produce its bounty, leading to an tried homicide. within the controversy following this play’s beginning evening, Kemble and Graves are back at odds, and their contention keeps as they modify areas at the level of theatre and of life.