COMIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND, Gilbert A'Beckett 1st/1st 1847, 2 Vols, 120 ENGRAVINGS

  The Comic History of England by Gilbert Abbott A'Beckett ~ With 10 Colored Etchings and 120 Woodcut Engravings by John Leech. First Edition / First Printing, 1847 in 2 Volumes

 Publisher: The Punch Office, London (1847)

"The Comic History of England" by Gilbert Abbott A'Beckett ~ With 10 Colored Etchings and 120 Woodcut Engravings by John Leech. First edition from 1847. For both volumes: The boards and bindings are solid and tight save for some small chipping to the top spine ends and light general shelf-wear. The pages are crisp and clean save for previous owner's name on the top corner of the first blank pages and small Trieste ink stamp on the bottom of both title pages. Volume I: 320 pages; Volume II: 304 pages. Please see below for more information on this scarce Victorian 2-volume set.

Book Review 

The first point to be made about Victorian laughter is simply that there was so much of it" (Donald J. Gray) — a truth borne out by these mirthful and much-illustrated volumes, which aim, as the Preface states, "to blend amusement with instruction by serving up, in as palatable a shape as [the author] could, the facts of English [and, later, Roman] history." "One of the wittiest writers of the day" (Allibone, 152), writer Becket worked with illustrator Leech on the staff of the poplar and influential humor magazine Punch.