A sumptuously illustrated and authoritative history of the sexually liberated, salacious, and high satirical world of pre-Victorian London.

Between 1779 and 1830. London was the world's largest and richest city, the center of hectic social ferment and spectacular sexual liberation. These singular conditions prompted revolutionary modes of thought, novel sensibilities, and constant debate about the relations between men and women. Such an atmosphere also stimulated outrageous behavior, from James Boswell's copulating on Westminster Bridge to the Prince Regent's attempt to seduce a woman by pleasing, sobbing, and stabbing himself with a penknife. And nowhere was London's lewdness and iconoclasm more vividly represented than its satire.

City of Laughter chronicles the rise and fall of a great tradition of ridicule and of the satirical, humorous, and widely circulated prints that sustained it. Focusing not on the polished wit upon which polite society prided itself, but rather on malicious, sardonic, and satirical humor—humor that was bawdy, knowing, and ironic—Vic Gatrell explores what this tradition says about the Georgian's views of the world and about their own pretensions. Taking the reader into the clubs and taverns where laughter flowed most freely, Gatrell examines how Londoners laughed about sex, scandal, fashion, drink, and similar pleasures of life.

Combining words and images—including more than 300 original drawings by Cruikshank, Gillray, Rowlandson, and others—City of Laughter offers a brilliantly original panorama of the era, providing a groundbreaking reappraisal of a period of change and a unique account of the origins of our attitudes toward sex, celebrity, and satire today.