Apology to the travellers' club, or anecdotes of monkeys

First edition, 12mo, pp. [8], 183, [1]; original drab paper-covered boards, brown paper shelfback; top of spine chipped, spine with vertical crack, but generally a very good, sound, and clean copy. Rose (1775-1842) held a number of government posts in Parliament, and was an MP himself from Christchurch. He famously translated Orlando Furioso, and wrote plenty of satire. He was an acquaintance of Lord Byron and championed the Italian poets. The text of the book concerns "amusing and entertaining anecdotes about monkeys, which were popular pets among aristocrats in the 18th and 19th centuries. The book is written in the form of a letter of apology to the Travelers Club, a prestigious social club in London. Rose explains that he was inspired to write the book after spending time with a group of monkeys owned by a friend. He goes on to recount various humorous and sometimes absurd stories about the monkeys, including their mischievous behavior, their interactions with humans, and their intelligence and cunning" (amazon[dot]com).…