[LINDRIDGE (James).]. The Merry wives of London. A romance of metropolitan life. By the author of "Socialist Girl," etc., etc. With numerous illustrations. London: G. Vickers, 28 and 29, Holywell Street, Strand, N.D. [1851]. Super roy.8vo, in half sheets, the text printed throughout in double column; half-title not called for; integral blank, list of Illustrations, and Contents leaf, follow title-page (v. note); numerous wood-engraved illustrations in text; pp.[2]+vi+208; old half-roan, marbled boards, spine ruled and lettered gilt. Sides darkened, and a little rubbed; end-papers defective; some fingering and marking, mostly light, small hole in one leaf, with loss of about forty words; one leaf creased and rubbed, with two small holes and loss of about three words, where the number had been folded; short tear near inner margin of one leaf, with no loss; corner chipped from one leaf, with loss of about 120 words; strip torn from lower margin of one leaf, with loss of about a dozen words; a good reading copy, nonetheless, of a book seldom seen.

The original twenty-six weekly penny numbers (the prelims. probably being given gratis with the last number), issued between Monday September 16th 1850 and Monday March 10th 1851. The presence of the blank leaf amongst the prelims. is unusual in a work of this sort. We suspect in any case that it should have preceded the title page, and that the prelims. have been folded wrongly, the correct order being: the blank, title-leaf, Contents (paged vi on verso), and list of Illustrations. "The wages of continence are death" - p.89 sums up the nature of the story pretty well. Summers, whose expectations of mid-Victorian pornography must have been fairly high, describes it as pseudo-pornography. It is in fact a well-written, and frequently witty, exercise in seeing how much you can get away with, defending itself against prosecution in footnotes referring the reader to newspaper reports of evidence offered in divorce cases and the like - for example the passage on p.171: ‘"Well, the defendant in this ere case had his coat off, and his shirt sleeves rolled up, and his arms were up the ladies petticoats round her waist, and her drawers were off, and her shape was quite plain, and they were waltzing like blazes!" The judge frowned severely - the ladies turned away their heads, as if inexpressibly shocked - the bar simpered - and the audience grinned outright . . . . "When they got tired of that fun, continued Jasper, "they stripped themselves stark naked, and danced an Irish jig before the mirror. . . . Then they rolled over each other on the carpet, and I do declare that then I lost my eyesight, but not my hearing; for I heard a hard breathing, and a kissing, and the lady crying out, just like a cat on the tiles at night." A footnote refers the reader to reports of the Lennox v. Cardigan case "as given in the ‘Times,' and other daily papers." Interestingly, in view of the title-page, the book concludes: "It only remains to be mentioned, that the experiences of Laura Bell, the Socialist Girl, have yet to be written and published." She appears as a character in the present volume.

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