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Tom And Jerry: Life In London; Or The Day And Night Scenes Of Jerry Hawthorn And His Elegant Friend, Corinthian Tom
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
- GenresHistoricalVictorian
424 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1821
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About the author
Pierce Egan
240 books3 followersPierce Egan (1772–1849) was a British journalist, sportswriter, and writer on popular culture.
Not to be confused with his son Pierce Egan the Younger
Not to be confused with his son Pierce Egan the Younger
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 12, 2018
Years ago, in the days before the internet, I found an early nineteenth century author's book on pugilism called 'Boxiana' in the library, and took it home to read extracts. The verbose style made that pretty hard going, but the information was fascinating. I forgot the name of the author, and anyway, never bothered tracking it down.
I have been meaning to read 'Life in London' for a couple of years, and I was intrigued to learn that Pierce Egan is the same author who wrote 'Boxiana'. This is written in pretty much the same style.
'Life in London' - hardly read these days - was massively successful when it came out, spawning masses of imitations and made into theatrical productions, which were, of course, the nineteenth century equivalent of films. Thackeray had fond memories of reading it avidly as a schoolboy, overcome with admiration for 'Corinthian Tom' and his cronies.
By modern standards, the writing style is often frankly terrible; this can hardly be ascribed to its age, as even the equally verbose Richardson at his most appalling did not write like Egan circa 1750, nor anyone else- and Egan came after Jane Austen.
However, it is an interesting window into a the decadent life style of men such as Corinthian Tom, and the squalid, rowdy and often brutal London of that era. The tome bursts with the activities of the 'young bucks' to which 'Corinthian Tom' devotes his days. As such, it gives a window into the life of wild young men of means and 'family' back in the late Regency and early years of the reign of George IV.
Egan assures the reader that in the text he shows disapproval of Tom and Co's wild fun, holding up the true mode of happiness as domestic fidelity, etc etc. I assume this was a public relations requirement of the time, as he makes their wild activities into fine larks, not the thrill seeking of jaded rakes which leave them finally emotionally as well as physically drained. They are shown as being enervated by their excesses and life as night birds, true - but any emotional damage remains unexamined. That, in a way, sums up the attitude of the age. Self analysis is rare, beyond a consciousness of sin.
I gather from the forward that Cruickshank thought that the friends all deserved to be hanged. In the end 'The Oxonian' finds out that he has been 'Punting too long on River Tick' and ends up in a debtor's prison. Still, he is optimistic that with economy, he will find a way out of his financial difficulties. Jerry ends up catching a cold, and I found myself wondering if this is meant to be a euphemism for another malady he might have acquired through loose living. Still, as he got soaked the night before, maybe not. Tom has already mentioned how Jerry's father has a county girl marked out as his wife. As for Corinthian Tom, we leave him much as before. Though excess made him ill in the beginning, as it has Jerry, he got over that by his 'spell of rustication'.
The story depicts the introduction of Tom's rustic 'Coz' Jerry to high and low life in London. Here he is doing what was done for him by his mentor, the debauched Bob Logic, shown in Cruickshank's famous illustrations as stout and bespectacled. Tom himself, with his Corinthian air, is depicted a hook nosed, tall, spare and sporting a magnificent great coat, while Jerry is strikingly muscular, with a broad back that Tom's taylor admires, so that when the 'Charleys' arrest him and take him to the watchhouse, it takes about six to contain him. None of them have particularly young faces, though they are presumably meant to be no older than their early twenties. In fact,
Cruickshank draws Tom as looking haggard, presumably from debauchery.
The author is careful to distinguish Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorne from the sort of men who get hopelessly drunk every night and sneer at religion and seduce maidens (come to think of it, one of the worst villains in literature, Robert Lovelace, disapproves of the first two as entertainment, though he makes a point of doing the third).
Tom and Jerry are, in fact, the true prototypes of the aristocratic Regency rakes swooned over by many readers of historical romance - but more of that at the end of this review.
I didn't think I would like the protagonists as being exploitative towards unfortunate women who due to economic necessity, had 'fallen', but in fact, they do come across as quite generous minded and within the limits of their mindset, even gallant towards them. Instead of being oblivious to sentiment after the manner of many of the Regency Rakes of modern historical romance, Tom does seem to have enough tender feelings towards his mistress Kate to write some verses to her eyes. You can hardly call it poetry; it's very bad; and as the author's own style is a strange combination of the flowery and high falutin' and the frankly cynical, I didn't know if it was intended to be ridiculous, or not.
That's the thing about Egan's writing; while such scenes as the arrest of Tom and Jerry are clearly meant to be farcical, others, which teeter on the borders of the absurd, are very possibly not, and the author's tone, which varies between detached irony and sentimental whimsy, makes it hard to work out which is which.
Kate, as Tom's mistress, is depicted as 'idolising' what he represents rather than the man himself. It is left in a decent fog whether or not she was a virgin when she decided to sell herself to him. She can hardly have come from a less than affluent background, as she has too many accomplishments - music, dancing etc, which would have been expensive to acquire, and there is no hint given that she has been anyone else's mistress. We never hear about her origins, or aspirations - does she wish 'The Corinthian' to reject convention and marry her?
The evening which Bob Logic and Jerry Hawthorne spend at Kate's house or apartment - presumably, paid for by Tom -where Logic plays the piano and she and Tom dance a waltz (seen, of course, as a 'lascivious' dance) is bizarre to modern thinking. The men are 'on their best behaviour' and no indelicate things are said; still, Kate has obviously brought her friend Sue along to tempt Jerry into making her his mistress.
Rather squalid motives and basic instincts are glossed over in a display of formal manners - this somehow seems typical of the style of the monied classes of that age. The earthiness of earlier ages seems far preferable to this mannered façade, and yet, Tom is depicted as a man who above everything, despises 'cant'(as distinct from Kant).
Egan spend some time explaining the contrasting characters of Kate and Sue - with some perception for a macho writer (interestingly, his admirer Thackeray sometimes showed that, too, though not in the scene where Amelia is finally disillusioned with poor George).
Then, oddly enough, we hardly see much more of the pair of courtesans , save for in a comic episode, when Tom and Jerry sneak up on them when they are consulting a fortune teller (about their marriage prospects to each of the pair, one suspects). Also, they have a visit together to Carleton House by way of a treat for the women.
I haven't seen inside Carleton House and don't even know if it is still open to the public. The author spends a long time praising the 'taste' of the décor, perhaps because this tome is dedicated to George IV. I can only say that if he is telling the truth, then it must be vastly different from the opulent vulgarity of the Royal Pavillion at Brighton. If not, then Egan's praise of it must have 'cost him some pain'!
It seems almost as if Egan meant to recount more adventures with Kate and Sue, but then either forgot about them as useful material, or possibly, had to edit out parts where they featured.
We never hear whether Jerry did set up Sue as his mistress - perhaps, as unlike Corinthian Tom's parents, his own rich father is still alive - he only visits her with 'presents'. Maybe propriety forbade Egan from saying, and we are meant to read between the lines; certainly, his last words to Tom as the carriage takes him out of London are about her.
Certainly, other sexual liaisons are hinted at as taking place offstage. After the Masquerade where Jerry meets Lady Wanton, Egan states: 'Where or how our heroes spent the rest of the night is irrelevant to the purpose of this book...' or words to that effect. From this, the reader is given to understand that an encounter took place between Lady Wanton and Jerry. When next she bumps into him - at Almacks, where else -she blushes and hides from him. This makes him lose interest in anything else about the evening.
I thought this rather sweet. As I say, in the end I did quite get to like these macho rakes, though I never expected to. Tom does buy drinks for the poor young prostitutes who were going home from the opera in their finery to a beating for having failed to get a client. I would have rather that he had done rather more for them, though, and even gone on to set up a refuge, or something. But that would require reforming zeal. He would be more likely to set up a harem.
There is a good deal of low life depicted, and lot of cynicism about beggars. Certainly, then, as now, beggars must have comprised both those in genuinely terrible circumstances, desperate through being out of work, or unable to work at all, and those cynics who play elaborate tricks upon the benevolent. That the second group exist has always existed has never been an excuse to dismiss the sufferings of the first.
We even see a gaol and a man about to be hanged. Here, it might be thought that Tom and Jerry take their penchant for a sort of 'tourist voyeurism' into the rough side of life too far, but in fact, this is not too distasteful, as Logic has been summ0ned by a former friend who had fallen on hard times to pass on a message to his sweetheart.
On the whole then, an intriguing read, if you can get past the florid style.
Now for the bit I must write about the influence of the characters and activities of Tom and Jerry on modern Regency romance, as I mentioned earlier.
The late historian and writer MM Bennets wrote on her website that Georgette Heyer, much admired for her knowledge of slang and the pursuits of the 'Corinthians' in the Regency, in fact relied heavily on this book as a source.
I found that interesting, as I knew that I had found an original sources before for such terms beloved by Heyer as 'young bloods' ,'the ribbons' (for reins) ,'Corinthians' 'dandies' 'pinks' ' etc, and had forgotten that one of these was that other book 'Boxiana' until I read this one and came across the same terms, and a huge amount of Heyer's slang.
There are the social settings used by Heyer here, too. Almacks and its ridiculous patronesses and rigid closing time is described here, as are a visit to Vauxhall Gardens, fashionable streets and shops, famous prize fighters, the Sunday drives in Hyde Park, with a Corinthian showing his skill with the ribbons in 'driving to the inch', Tattershalls', and many other images that Heyer used for her own particular comedic version of the Regency world of fashion.
The origin of Heyer's heroes can be found here too, in Corinthian Tom and the man he always refers to as his 'Coz' Jerry Hawthorn, rather than in Byron and Austen. 'Corinthian Tom' is depicted as a leader of fashion, but 'handy with his dives' and 'no dandy' (ie, effete). He is handsome, cynical, blasé, a fine pugilist and swordsman, a famed 'whip' and has a roving eye for female beauty - whether it is paying compliments to the women of the elite at Almacks, or chucking the pretty chin of the beggar chit Polly in her rags. His 'Dear Coz' Jerry is less clever, but full of mischief and 'game till he's floored', with a physical presence that draws the eye of many women.
Of course, I am not accusing Heyer of plagiarism in borrowing so heavily from this book; you can't plagiarise an idea. What I am saying, is that I think that Heyer, having used 'Life in London' so greatly for her depiction of the Regency era, should have acknowledged it, rather than mentioning only Austen and Byron.
Heyer's followers assume that she came by her information about the pursuits of aristocratic 'young bloods' from rather more varied and recondite sources than relying so heavily on one book, and can't praise that research enough. Of course, she seemingly did have a library of books on the fashions, topography, and social events of the upper class in this age, etc.
Still, I see now why M M Bennetts commented on her blog about how much Heyer drew on these thinly sketched cartoon characters to create her: 'Stereotypical young men, who are often little better than caricatures...' Given their origins, the cardboard cut out nature of many of those heroes is unsurprising.
What is more serious, is what MM Bennetts calls: 'The subsequent assumption that the Regency era was as she (Heyer) presented it and her work is used as a kind of yardstick for anything written about the period'.
I would like to say here, that it was a brilliant stroke of Heyer's to create characters appealing to a female readership out of a book intended for a male one, and her comic world has its escapist allure. But I wholly share in the frustration that MM Bennetts wish that the whole Regency era should not be seen as the domain of one comic writer whose emphasis was generally on
the'fashionable world' of the upper class.
On the language of Tom and Jerry, which was appropriated by Heyer (along with that of the racy characters in 'Vanity Fair'), I know that many readers and critics assume that using these terms means that they have been copied straight from the pages of Heyer; this being so, I thought it was only fair to to set the record straight. Writers about the Regency era can safey use such terms as 'Corinthian' 'Nonesuch' 'leaky' (a can't term for drunken), 'blood' 'young buck' 'ribbons' 'the ton' 'cits' (for the trading and middle class) and all the rest of them, knowing that Heyer got them wholesale from 'Life in London' , which can be their source, too.
They can safely use 'chit' too, by the way - it comes not, as I have seen asserted, from the invention of Heyer as applied to young girls, but from Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair'. Becky uses it, for one. As for 'Coz' - well, that not only is used on every page in 'Life in London' but dates at least from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'.
I have been meaning to read 'Life in London' for a couple of years, and I was intrigued to learn that Pierce Egan is the same author who wrote 'Boxiana'. This is written in pretty much the same style.
'Life in London' - hardly read these days - was massively successful when it came out, spawning masses of imitations and made into theatrical productions, which were, of course, the nineteenth century equivalent of films. Thackeray had fond memories of reading it avidly as a schoolboy, overcome with admiration for 'Corinthian Tom' and his cronies.
By modern standards, the writing style is often frankly terrible; this can hardly be ascribed to its age, as even the equally verbose Richardson at his most appalling did not write like Egan circa 1750, nor anyone else- and Egan came after Jane Austen.
However, it is an interesting window into a the decadent life style of men such as Corinthian Tom, and the squalid, rowdy and often brutal London of that era. The tome bursts with the activities of the 'young bucks' to which 'Corinthian Tom' devotes his days. As such, it gives a window into the life of wild young men of means and 'family' back in the late Regency and early years of the reign of George IV.
Egan assures the reader that in the text he shows disapproval of Tom and Co's wild fun, holding up the true mode of happiness as domestic fidelity, etc etc. I assume this was a public relations requirement of the time, as he makes their wild activities into fine larks, not the thrill seeking of jaded rakes which leave them finally emotionally as well as physically drained. They are shown as being enervated by their excesses and life as night birds, true - but any emotional damage remains unexamined. That, in a way, sums up the attitude of the age. Self analysis is rare, beyond a consciousness of sin.
I gather from the forward that Cruickshank thought that the friends all deserved to be hanged. In the end 'The Oxonian' finds out that he has been 'Punting too long on River Tick' and ends up in a debtor's prison. Still, he is optimistic that with economy, he will find a way out of his financial difficulties. Jerry ends up catching a cold, and I found myself wondering if this is meant to be a euphemism for another malady he might have acquired through loose living. Still, as he got soaked the night before, maybe not. Tom has already mentioned how Jerry's father has a county girl marked out as his wife. As for Corinthian Tom, we leave him much as before. Though excess made him ill in the beginning, as it has Jerry, he got over that by his 'spell of rustication'.
The story depicts the introduction of Tom's rustic 'Coz' Jerry to high and low life in London. Here he is doing what was done for him by his mentor, the debauched Bob Logic, shown in Cruickshank's famous illustrations as stout and bespectacled. Tom himself, with his Corinthian air, is depicted a hook nosed, tall, spare and sporting a magnificent great coat, while Jerry is strikingly muscular, with a broad back that Tom's taylor admires, so that when the 'Charleys' arrest him and take him to the watchhouse, it takes about six to contain him. None of them have particularly young faces, though they are presumably meant to be no older than their early twenties. In fact,
Cruickshank draws Tom as looking haggard, presumably from debauchery.
The author is careful to distinguish Corinthian Tom and Jerry Hawthorne from the sort of men who get hopelessly drunk every night and sneer at religion and seduce maidens (come to think of it, one of the worst villains in literature, Robert Lovelace, disapproves of the first two as entertainment, though he makes a point of doing the third).
Tom and Jerry are, in fact, the true prototypes of the aristocratic Regency rakes swooned over by many readers of historical romance - but more of that at the end of this review.
I didn't think I would like the protagonists as being exploitative towards unfortunate women who due to economic necessity, had 'fallen', but in fact, they do come across as quite generous minded and within the limits of their mindset, even gallant towards them. Instead of being oblivious to sentiment after the manner of many of the Regency Rakes of modern historical romance, Tom does seem to have enough tender feelings towards his mistress Kate to write some verses to her eyes. You can hardly call it poetry; it's very bad; and as the author's own style is a strange combination of the flowery and high falutin' and the frankly cynical, I didn't know if it was intended to be ridiculous, or not.
That's the thing about Egan's writing; while such scenes as the arrest of Tom and Jerry are clearly meant to be farcical, others, which teeter on the borders of the absurd, are very possibly not, and the author's tone, which varies between detached irony and sentimental whimsy, makes it hard to work out which is which.
Kate, as Tom's mistress, is depicted as 'idolising' what he represents rather than the man himself. It is left in a decent fog whether or not she was a virgin when she decided to sell herself to him. She can hardly have come from a less than affluent background, as she has too many accomplishments - music, dancing etc, which would have been expensive to acquire, and there is no hint given that she has been anyone else's mistress. We never hear about her origins, or aspirations - does she wish 'The Corinthian' to reject convention and marry her?
The evening which Bob Logic and Jerry Hawthorne spend at Kate's house or apartment - presumably, paid for by Tom -where Logic plays the piano and she and Tom dance a waltz (seen, of course, as a 'lascivious' dance) is bizarre to modern thinking. The men are 'on their best behaviour' and no indelicate things are said; still, Kate has obviously brought her friend Sue along to tempt Jerry into making her his mistress.
Rather squalid motives and basic instincts are glossed over in a display of formal manners - this somehow seems typical of the style of the monied classes of that age. The earthiness of earlier ages seems far preferable to this mannered façade, and yet, Tom is depicted as a man who above everything, despises 'cant'(as distinct from Kant).
Egan spend some time explaining the contrasting characters of Kate and Sue - with some perception for a macho writer (interestingly, his admirer Thackeray sometimes showed that, too, though not in the scene where Amelia is finally disillusioned with poor George).
Then, oddly enough, we hardly see much more of the pair of courtesans , save for in a comic episode, when Tom and Jerry sneak up on them when they are consulting a fortune teller (about their marriage prospects to each of the pair, one suspects). Also, they have a visit together to Carleton House by way of a treat for the women.
I haven't seen inside Carleton House and don't even know if it is still open to the public. The author spends a long time praising the 'taste' of the décor, perhaps because this tome is dedicated to George IV. I can only say that if he is telling the truth, then it must be vastly different from the opulent vulgarity of the Royal Pavillion at Brighton. If not, then Egan's praise of it must have 'cost him some pain'!
It seems almost as if Egan meant to recount more adventures with Kate and Sue, but then either forgot about them as useful material, or possibly, had to edit out parts where they featured.
We never hear whether Jerry did set up Sue as his mistress - perhaps, as unlike Corinthian Tom's parents, his own rich father is still alive - he only visits her with 'presents'. Maybe propriety forbade Egan from saying, and we are meant to read between the lines; certainly, his last words to Tom as the carriage takes him out of London are about her.
Certainly, other sexual liaisons are hinted at as taking place offstage. After the Masquerade where Jerry meets Lady Wanton, Egan states: 'Where or how our heroes spent the rest of the night is irrelevant to the purpose of this book...' or words to that effect. From this, the reader is given to understand that an encounter took place between Lady Wanton and Jerry. When next she bumps into him - at Almacks, where else -she blushes and hides from him. This makes him lose interest in anything else about the evening.
I thought this rather sweet. As I say, in the end I did quite get to like these macho rakes, though I never expected to. Tom does buy drinks for the poor young prostitutes who were going home from the opera in their finery to a beating for having failed to get a client. I would have rather that he had done rather more for them, though, and even gone on to set up a refuge, or something. But that would require reforming zeal. He would be more likely to set up a harem.
There is a good deal of low life depicted, and lot of cynicism about beggars. Certainly, then, as now, beggars must have comprised both those in genuinely terrible circumstances, desperate through being out of work, or unable to work at all, and those cynics who play elaborate tricks upon the benevolent. That the second group exist has always existed has never been an excuse to dismiss the sufferings of the first.
We even see a gaol and a man about to be hanged. Here, it might be thought that Tom and Jerry take their penchant for a sort of 'tourist voyeurism' into the rough side of life too far, but in fact, this is not too distasteful, as Logic has been summ0ned by a former friend who had fallen on hard times to pass on a message to his sweetheart.
On the whole then, an intriguing read, if you can get past the florid style.
Now for the bit I must write about the influence of the characters and activities of Tom and Jerry on modern Regency romance, as I mentioned earlier.
The late historian and writer MM Bennets wrote on her website that Georgette Heyer, much admired for her knowledge of slang and the pursuits of the 'Corinthians' in the Regency, in fact relied heavily on this book as a source.
I found that interesting, as I knew that I had found an original sources before for such terms beloved by Heyer as 'young bloods' ,'the ribbons' (for reins) ,'Corinthians' 'dandies' 'pinks' ' etc, and had forgotten that one of these was that other book 'Boxiana' until I read this one and came across the same terms, and a huge amount of Heyer's slang.
There are the social settings used by Heyer here, too. Almacks and its ridiculous patronesses and rigid closing time is described here, as are a visit to Vauxhall Gardens, fashionable streets and shops, famous prize fighters, the Sunday drives in Hyde Park, with a Corinthian showing his skill with the ribbons in 'driving to the inch', Tattershalls', and many other images that Heyer used for her own particular comedic version of the Regency world of fashion.
The origin of Heyer's heroes can be found here too, in Corinthian Tom and the man he always refers to as his 'Coz' Jerry Hawthorn, rather than in Byron and Austen. 'Corinthian Tom' is depicted as a leader of fashion, but 'handy with his dives' and 'no dandy' (ie, effete). He is handsome, cynical, blasé, a fine pugilist and swordsman, a famed 'whip' and has a roving eye for female beauty - whether it is paying compliments to the women of the elite at Almacks, or chucking the pretty chin of the beggar chit Polly in her rags. His 'Dear Coz' Jerry is less clever, but full of mischief and 'game till he's floored', with a physical presence that draws the eye of many women.
Of course, I am not accusing Heyer of plagiarism in borrowing so heavily from this book; you can't plagiarise an idea. What I am saying, is that I think that Heyer, having used 'Life in London' so greatly for her depiction of the Regency era, should have acknowledged it, rather than mentioning only Austen and Byron.
Heyer's followers assume that she came by her information about the pursuits of aristocratic 'young bloods' from rather more varied and recondite sources than relying so heavily on one book, and can't praise that research enough. Of course, she seemingly did have a library of books on the fashions, topography, and social events of the upper class in this age, etc.
Still, I see now why M M Bennetts commented on her blog about how much Heyer drew on these thinly sketched cartoon characters to create her: 'Stereotypical young men, who are often little better than caricatures...' Given their origins, the cardboard cut out nature of many of those heroes is unsurprising.
What is more serious, is what MM Bennetts calls: 'The subsequent assumption that the Regency era was as she (Heyer) presented it and her work is used as a kind of yardstick for anything written about the period'.
I would like to say here, that it was a brilliant stroke of Heyer's to create characters appealing to a female readership out of a book intended for a male one, and her comic world has its escapist allure. But I wholly share in the frustration that MM Bennetts wish that the whole Regency era should not be seen as the domain of one comic writer whose emphasis was generally on
the'fashionable world' of the upper class.
On the language of Tom and Jerry, which was appropriated by Heyer (along with that of the racy characters in 'Vanity Fair'), I know that many readers and critics assume that using these terms means that they have been copied straight from the pages of Heyer; this being so, I thought it was only fair to to set the record straight. Writers about the Regency era can safey use such terms as 'Corinthian' 'Nonesuch' 'leaky' (a can't term for drunken), 'blood' 'young buck' 'ribbons' 'the ton' 'cits' (for the trading and middle class) and all the rest of them, knowing that Heyer got them wholesale from 'Life in London' , which can be their source, too.
They can safely use 'chit' too, by the way - it comes not, as I have seen asserted, from the invention of Heyer as applied to young girls, but from Thackeray's 'Vanity Fair'. Becky uses it, for one. As for 'Coz' - well, that not only is used on every page in 'Life in London' but dates at least from Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 30, 2020
Despite self-isolating in a room with little else to do, it still felt like pulling teeth to get through this novel. However, it is an impressive record of 1820s slang, and it does provide a valuable portrait of various customs and perceptions of city life at the end of the Regency.
March 29, 2016
Review for the 1904 D. Appleton & Co. printing.
This is one of the best reprinting of Life in London that I have found (save the earlier 1820s printings, if you can find them). If you can find 19th century version of this book, I strongly recommend them, as they are much better than the new paperback reprintings (which are just mass printings of the scanned archive books you can find on Google Books).
This version includes all 36 of the color scenes, as well as many black woodcut scenes throughout. It also includes fold out sheet music for piano to go with several of the little songs Pierce Egan wrote for his characters to sing.
This is one of the best reprinting of Life in London that I have found (save the earlier 1820s printings, if you can find them). If you can find 19th century version of this book, I strongly recommend them, as they are much better than the new paperback reprintings (which are just mass printings of the scanned archive books you can find on Google Books).
This version includes all 36 of the color scenes, as well as many black woodcut scenes throughout. It also includes fold out sheet music for piano to go with several of the little songs Pierce Egan wrote for his characters to sing.
January 6, 2021
I honestly think I should get some sort of Certificate of Completion for finishing this book.
Originally, I rated Egan's book as a one-star read, but then I corrected myself. It is clear to me this book helps readers who study Victorian England learn more about dialogue and the slang used in the 1800s, but it could have been done much better. Obviously, Egan can't be resurrected from the dead and made this book ten times more interesting (damn it).
The major reason why I am rating this two stars is that I really enjoyed the poetry embedded into the story. They were interesting and, at times, fun to read. However, Egan's use of footnotes made me want to slam my head into the wall more than a dozen times. At some points, the footnotes had footnotes!
Another reason why I am rating this two stars is due to the fact this copy has a serious error. While it is one page, I was furious to see that the left side of one of the pages was cut off, and despite my hard attempts to understand what was happening, I was unable to because of this error.
I really think someone needs to redo this facsimile and do their best to format and arrange it in such a way that makes it easier to read!
Sincerely,
A reader who absolutely loves Victorian literature, but was overly disappointed in the book itself and the attempt to make it readable.
Originally, I rated Egan's book as a one-star read, but then I corrected myself. It is clear to me this book helps readers who study Victorian England learn more about dialogue and the slang used in the 1800s, but it could have been done much better. Obviously, Egan can't be resurrected from the dead and made this book ten times more interesting (damn it).
The major reason why I am rating this two stars is that I really enjoyed the poetry embedded into the story. They were interesting and, at times, fun to read. However, Egan's use of footnotes made me want to slam my head into the wall more than a dozen times. At some points, the footnotes had footnotes!
Another reason why I am rating this two stars is due to the fact this copy has a serious error. While it is one page, I was furious to see that the left side of one of the pages was cut off, and despite my hard attempts to understand what was happening, I was unable to because of this error.
I really think someone needs to redo this facsimile and do their best to format and arrange it in such a way that makes it easier to read!
Sincerely,
A reader who absolutely loves Victorian literature, but was overly disappointed in the book itself and the attempt to make it readable.
February 2, 2023
A friend gave me the original 1821 printing (new binding) and finally I dove in completely. This tale of Tom and Jerry living the life as a couple of Swells in the big city combines highbrow and lowbrow societal observations generously slathered with sarcasm, witty abuse and a dollop or two of moral outrage (but not enough to dampen the fun quotient of our dapper guides). Reading it in the age of Google allows for easy referencing to people and vernacular of the period. The best sections are fantastic. The voluminous color illustrations are superb. The cover page and frontispiece is memorable too. A dabble into this world of young men with money and nothing but time... isn't that swell indeed.
I read that a play adaption ran for over 100 performances setting a record at the time. A few stretches dragged a bit, admittedly, but I stayed focus so I could go to the Masquerade Ball and other delights of the era.
I read that a play adaption ran for over 100 performances setting a record at the time. A few stretches dragged a bit, admittedly, but I stayed focus so I could go to the Masquerade Ball and other delights of the era.
March 6, 2014
4 Extra Premiere. Cocksure Tom and his country cousin tour the sprawling post-Regency metropolis. Stars Greg Wise and Mark Gatiss. From May 2006.
Listen here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/...
Nothing much here for me at this time
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2012
Tedious to get through, but a great way to find out what people were saying and doing in London in the 1820s, particularly the slang.
Want to read
January 10, 2014i am ravaged by the wantings
this book should be called LO QUE YO DESEO
this book should be called LO QUE YO DESEO
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