Rowlandson the Caricaturist; A Selection from His Works. Vol. 2

Thomas Rowlandson was the sharpest eye of Regency England, and this volume preserves his finest cuts. Spanning 1800 to 1825, Grego's collection gathers the caricatures that made nobles squirm and commoners laugh - wicked portraits of the Prince Regent's girth, satirical jabs at Napoleon's ambitions, and the vanity of society beauties all rendered with an ink-stained ferocity that still bites. Grego, himself a cartoonist, provides anecdotal context that brings each scene to life: the scandals that sparked the drawings, the personalities who commissioned them, the jokes that landed hardest. These are not mere historical curiosities. They are windows into a world obsessed with appearance, terrified of French revolution, and desperate to laugh at its own contradictions. For anyone interested in visual wit, the birth of modern satire, or simply the indecent pleasure of seeing the powerful rendered ridiculous.