The Bed-Book of Happiness: Being a Colligation or Assemblage of Cheerful Writings Brought Together from Many Quarters into This One Compass for the Diversion, Distraction, and Delight of Those Who Lie Abed,—a Friend to the Invalid, a Companion to the Sleepless, an Excuse to the Tired

Here is a peculiar and earnest treasure from 1910: a book designed for one purpose only, to comfort the unwell, the restless, and the weary. Harold Begbie, moved by his own experience watching a sick child, set out to compile something utterly unlike the serious literature of his day. Instead, he gathered jokes, light verse, uplifting anecdotes, and cheerful essays into what he called a 'Bed-Book', reading meant to lift the spirits without demanding anything from a tired mind. The title itself is a mission statement: this is not a book to challenge you, but one to hold close when you're too fatigued for anything heavier. It arrives with the quiet hope that even in bed, with a fever or an empty night stretching ahead, a reader might find something to smile about. Its Edwardian gentility may feel dated, its humor quaint, but for those seeking gentle distraction, it remains a charming artifact of an era that believed in the medicinal power of cheerfulness.