Tricks of the Town. Being Reprints of Three Eighteenth Century Tracts

Robert M. McBride & Company, New York; Chapman & Hall, Ltd., London. Published date: 1928. Hardcover, xxvi, 256 pp; 23 cm. Series: Eighteenth Century Diversions, Vol. I. Frontispiece and plates. In very good condition / NO dust jacket. Beige cloth boards with red cloth spine and gilt trim. Gilt lettering to spine now dulled. Boards show light overall soiling and mild edge wear. Spine cloth slightly darkened with faint rubbing; ends gently bumped. Binding sound. Textblock clean overall with light age toning. Previous owner's name, city and date (Dec. 26, 1936) in ink in top corner of front free endpaper, together with two small red stamps at the lower corner of the same page. Interior pages lightly aged but otherwise unmarked. "This edition is limited to one thousand copies for England and America" as stated on the limitation page. Contents include: Introduction; Tricks of the town laid open (1747); A trip through the town (1735); A trip from St. James' to the Royal Exchange (1744). This is a compilation of three popular eighteenth-century London satirical tracts that expose the manners, vices, amusements, and social customs of Georgian urban life. Edited and introduced by Ralph Straus, the volume places these pamphlets within their historical and literary context, tracing their role in the tradition of social satire aimed at revealing the tricks, cheats, and follies of the metropolis. Illustrated with eight plates after eighteenth-century views of London, the book offers a vivid contemporary portrait of everyday life, entertainment, and moral commentary in the capital during the mid-eighteenth century. …