The Comic History of Rome

London: Bradbury, Agnew & Co.. Near Fine with no dust jacket. N.D.. Reprint. First Edition. Hard Cover. Expertly rebacked in half-leather over marbled boards, original spine laid down in six compartments, gilt lettering in two compartments, intricate gilt tooling in remainder. Illustrated with ten hand-colored steel engravings and 98 in-text woodcuts by John Leech. nd (c. 1870). "One of the wittiest writers of the day" (Allibone, 152), writer Becket worked with illustrator Leech on the staff of the poplar and influential humor magazine "Punch." Leech’s "humor is as keen, his sense of fun as marked [as George Cruikshank’s] [Leech’s pictures] are of the most graphic and mirth-producing kind, and yet the raillery is invariably good-humored" (DNB). Gilbert Abbott à Beckett (1811-1856) was an English humorist, lawyer and writer. He was born in London and belonged to a family claiming descent from Thomas Becket. He was educated at Westminster School and was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1841. He edited the comic paper "Figaro in London" and was one of the original staff of "Punch" and a contributor until his death. He was an active journalist on "The Times" and "The Morning Herald," contributed a series of light articles to "The Illustrated London News," conducted in 1846 "The Almanack of the Month" and found time to produce some fifty or sixty plays, among them dramatized versions of Charles Dickens's shorter stories, written in collaboration with Mark Lemon. He is perhaps best known as the author of "Comic History of England," "Comic History of Rome," "Comic Blackstone," etc. He wrote the book for two operas with music composed by his wife Mary Anne à Beckett (née Glossop), "Agnes Sorrel" and "Red Riding Hood." . Boards mildly shelf-worn, unmarked, tight and square. All illustrations bright and clean. NEAR FINE. . Hand colored steel engravings. 8vo 8" - 9" tall. xii, (i), 308 pp .