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Life In London
London: Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster-Row, 1821. Item #06528
"Indeed, the Taste for it Amounted to a Craze"
EGAN, Pierce. [CRUIKSHANK, George and Robert, illustrators]. Life In London; or, the Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorne, Esq. and His Elegant Friend Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis... Embellished with Thirty-six Scenes from Real Life, Designed and Etched by I.R. & G. Cruikshank; And enriched also with numerous Designs on Wood by the same Artists. London: Printed for Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, Paternoster-Row, 1821.
First edition, first issue (with printer's imprint on the left-hand side of the verso of the half-title; no footnote on p. 9 and the first sheet of music unnumbered).
Large octavo (9 1/4 x 6 inches; 235 x 152 mm.). [i–v]–xvi, [1]–376 pp. With thirty-six fine hand-colored aquatint plates (including frontispiece), three folding sheets of music, numerous wood-engraved text illustrations, and the publisher’s eight-page catalogue at end. Text watermarked 1821; plates watermarked 1820.
Handsomely bound by Bayntun (Rivière) ca. 1960 in full red morocco, covers framed in gilt, spine with five raised bands, decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt ruled board edges and turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Some occasional and very light thumb soiling, still an excellent copy.
A cornerstone of Regency graphic satire and one of the most commercially successful illustrated books of the nineteenth century, Life in London captures - with exuberant energy - the pleasures, excesses, and theatricality of metropolitan life. Egan’s vivid prose, chronicling the adventures of Corinthian Tom, Jerry Hawthorne, and Bob Logic, is perfectly matched by the spirited plates of the Cruikshank brothers, whose designs bring the demi-monde of clubs, taverns, gaming houses, and pleasure gardens vividly to life.
The work achieved immediate and extraordinary popularity - “a craze,” as contemporary observers noted - fueling not only multiple editions but also stage adaptations, piracies, and a host of imitations. Its success parallels that of the Doctor Syntax series, with which it shares a similar fusion of text and image, humor and observation. Indeed, as Prideaux observed, Egan’s triumph lay in securing the ideal collaborators in the Cruikshanks, whose hand-colored plates could scarcely be produced fast enough to meet demand.
Beyond its entertainment value, the book serves as a vivid social document of Regency London at its most fashionable and disreputable - a guide, in effect, to the rituals and excesses of “fast life.” Part of its appeal lay in the widespread belief that its characters were drawn from real individuals, lending the work an immediacy and notoriety that only enhanced its sales.
A superior copy of the true first issue, complete with all plates and music, and attractively preserved in a distinguished Bayntun (Rivière) binding.
"By finding the right men [the Cruikshanks] for his work [Egan] made Life In London one the great successes of the day, comparable to that other triumphant alliance of humour and art in the pages of Dr Syntax" (Prideaux).
"A journalist, and a well-known character in his day, [Pierce Egan] wrote nothing so popular as this Life in London. Indeed, the taste for it amounted to a craze. For his illustrations, Egan went to two brothers, Isaac Robert and George Cruikshank…the success of the work was so great that the artists could not colour the engravings fast enough for the demand. It suited the taste of the time, when a ‘fast’ life had become a sophisticated and conscious aim. Life in London is a guide to a fast life.…Part of the success enjoyed by [Pierce Egan’s Life in London] was due, no doubt, to its readers’ belief that they could name the originals of the fictitious characters. Imitations came swift and frequent…" (The Cambridge History of English and American Literature ).
Cohn 262. Abbey, Life 281; Prideaux p. 307, 310, 335; Tooley 196.
Price: $2,000.00