City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-century LondonJames Boswell observed that a person living in eighteenth-century London, 'may be in some degree be whatever character they choose'. London was, quite simply, the most vibrant and powerful city in the world. This vivacity - famously depicted by the satirical artists Gillray, Cruikshank and Rowlandson - gave rise to lewd and iconoclastic behaviour unlike any other in English history. Gatrell's remarkable book argues that we cannot comprehend our own capacity for licentiousness or our sense of humour without understanding this unique period in English history. City of Laughter is as original as it is brilliantly written and will change permanently our view of London and its inhabitants. |
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City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-century London V. A. C. Gatrell,Vic Gatrell No preview available - 2006 |
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artist attack bagnio bawdy beggars Benbow BMSat bookseller Boswell British Byron Cambridge cant caricature caricaturist Carington Bowles Caroline catalogued Charing Cross cited City comic Covent Garden culture depicted Duke eighteenth century England English engravers evangelical fashionable female Fores Fores's Francis Place French friends George Cruikshank Gillray Gillray's graphic satire Henry Angelo Hogarth Holland Hone's Horace Walpole House humour Humphrey images Isaac Cruikshank James James Gillray John jokes king Lady later laugh laughter libel libertine London London Corresponding Society Lord male manners masquerade mocked Modern moral Newton Oxford parodies Piccadilly Pitt plates pleasure political popular Prince of Wales printseller printshops prosecution published radical reform regent Richard Newton ridicule Robert Rowlandson Royal satire satirical prints satirists sexual social Society songs St James's Street tavern Tegg Thomas thought vice Victorian Walpole Westminster Whig William Hickey William Hone woman women wrote young