High Society: A Social History of the Regency Period, 1788-1830 by Venetia Murray

The Regency is synonymous with a style unique in the English monarchy’s history. A time of transition and paradox, elegance and vulgarity; when Lady Caroline Lamb stabbed herself for love of Byron and Stephenson invented the locomotive; when a mistress cost the equivalent of £100,000 a year and a farm labourer kept a family on 15 shillings a week. Murray chronicles the life of the beau monde during this extraordinary period – the manners, the morals and the attitudes of everyone from dandiesto pugilists, duchesses to courtesans. The Regency also saw the flourishing of the art of caricature and this book is illustrated throughout with rare cartoons, prints and caricatures by such giants as Gillray, Rowlandson and Cruikshank.