City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth Century London

by VicGatrell (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2007

  $14.63

  Between 1770 and 1830, London was the world's largest and richest city, the centre of hectic social ferment and of spectacular sexual liberation. It prompted revolutionary modes of thought, novel sensibilities and constant debate about the relations between the sexes. It also stimulated outrageous behaviour, from James Boswell's copulating on WestminsterBridge to the Prince Regent's attempt to seduce a woman by pleading, sobbing and stabbing himself with a pen-knife.And nowhere was London's lewdness and iconoclasm more vividly represented than in its satire. Combining words and images to offer a brilliantly original panorama of that time, City of Laughter is a ground-breaking reappraisal of a period of seismic change and a unique account of the origins of our attitudes to sex, celebrity and satire today.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2006

  $3.19

  James 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.