R.S. Surtees Ask Mama 12 Illustrations John Leech Folio Society 1954 HC

Description: .. R.S. Surtees Ask Mama 12 Illustrations John Leech Folio Society 1954 HC .. .. Ask Mama .. .. R.S. Surtees .. .. With Colour Plates by John Leech . 12 Illustrations .. .. The Folio Society . Westminster 1954 . [First Folio Society Edition] .. .. This book has been composed in 11 on 12 period imprint type, printed and bound by Jarrolds of Norwich. The collotype base of the plates was printed at the Chiswick Press and the hand colouring carried out by Maud Johnson. Red-cloth hardcover, no dustjacket . . Gold-lettering in title blocks on the spine is faded nearly away . . Previous owner's name in ink inside . . clean bright tight unmarked copy . 463 pages. Robert Smith Surtees (17 May 1805 – 16 March 1864) was an English editor, novelist and sporting writer, widely known as R. S. Surtees. He is remembered for his invented character of Jorrocks, a vulgar but good-natured sporting cockney grocer. Surtees left for London in 1825, intending to practise law in the capital, but had difficulty making his way and began contributing to the Sporting Magazine. He launched out on his own with the New Sporting Magazine in 1831, contributing the comic papers which appeared as Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities in 1838. Jorrocks, the sporting cockney grocer, with his vulgarity and good-natured artfulness, was a great success with the public, and Surtees produced more Jorrocks novels in the same vein, notably Handley Cross and Hillingdon Hall, where the description of the house is very reminiscent of Hamsterley. Another hero, Soapey Sponge, appears in Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour, possibly Surtees best work. All Surtees' novels were composed at Hamsterley Hall, where he wrote standing up at a desk, like Victor Hugo. In 1835, Surtees abandoned his legal practice and after inheriting Hamsterley Hall in 1838, devoted himself to hunting and shooting, meanwhile writing anonymously for his own pleasure. He was a friend and admirer of the great hunting man Ralph Lambton, who had his headquarters at Sedgefield County Durham, the 'Melton of the North'. Surtees became Lord High Sheriff of Durham in 1856. He died in Brighton in 1864, and was buried in Ebchester church. Though Surtees did not set his novels in any readily identifiable locality, he uses North East place-names like Sheepwash, Howell (How) Burn, and Winford Rig. His memorable Geordie James Pigg, in Handley Cross, is based on Joe Kirk, a Slaley huntsman. The famous incident, illustrated by Leech, when Pigg jumps into the melon frame was inspired by a similar episode involving Kirk in Corbridge. As a creator of comic personalities, Surtees is still readable today. Thackeray envied him his powers of observation, while William Morris considered him "a master of life" and ranked him with Dickens. The novels are engaging and vigorous, and abound with sharp social observation, with a keener eye than Dickens for the natural world. Perhaps Surtees most resembles the Dickens of Pickwick Papers, which was originally intended as mere supporting matter for a series of sporting illustrations to rival Jorrocks. Most of Surtees's later novels, were illustrated by John Leech. They included Mr Sponge's Sporting Tour (1853); Ask Mamma (1858); Plain or Ringlets? (1860) and Mr Facey Romford's Hounds (1865). The last of these novels appeared posthumously. John Leech (29 August 1817 – 29 October 1864) was a British caricaturist and illustrator. He is best known for his work for Punch, a humorous magazine for a broad middle-class audience, combining verbal and graphic political satire with light social comedy. Leech catered to contemporary prejudices, such as anti-Americanism and antisemitism and supported acceptable social reforms. Leech's critical yet humorous cartoons on the Crimean War help shape public attitudes toward heroism, warfare, and Britons' role in the world. Leech also enjoys fame as the first illustrator of Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol. He was furthermore a pioneer in comics, creating the recurring character Mr. Briggs and some sequential illustrated gags. William Makepeace Thackeray was a lifelong friend. Among his best designs are four charming plates to Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843), the broadly humorous etchings in the Comic History of England (1847–1848), and the still finer illustrations to the Comic History of Rome (1852) —which last, particularly in its minor woodcuts, shows some exquisitely graceful touches, as witness the fair faces that rise from the surging water in Cloelia and her Companions Escaping from the Etruscan Camp. .. Please ask any and all questions prior to purchasing the item or making a bid.

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