Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 99, September 27, 1890

In the autumn of 1890, Punch remains the undisputed king of British satire. This particular issue captures the magazine at its finest: viciously funny, sharply observant, and utterly unrepentant in its mockery of Victorian society's sacred cows. Here you'll find the "Servant of Society" - a delicious portrait of the social climber who professes to serve the people while ingratiating himself with the powerful. There are witty verses on the economics of marriage and the price of wheat, plus sharp little anecdotes that skewer the absurdities of class pretense. The humor is period-specific, of course, but the targets remain eternally familiar: pomposity, hypocrisy, and the desperate performance of respectability. For readers who appreciate sharp satirical wit, this is a time capsule that proves the Victorians could be as merciless about their world as we are about ours.