Sketches of Young Gentlemen

A mock-dedication opens this witty satirical gallery of young gentlemen, answering a teasing portrait of young ladies with comic indignation and a promise of male counterparts. What follows is a parade of social types—bashful, swaggering, friendly, military, political, and domestic—each sketched with affectionate sharpness and a keen eye for courtship, manners, vanity, and fashionable performance. The bashful young gentleman is a study in mortifying timidity, blundering through dinner parties and casual encounters with spills, broken objects, and blushing confusion. At the opposite extreme stands the out-and-out young gentleman, loud, self-assertive, and contemptuous of decorum, whether loafing in taverns, theatres, or other public spaces, where he delights in vice, bravado, and mutual recognition among his own kind. A second version of this type includes men without money but with the same reckless polish, whose charm can disguise their irresponsibility. Other sketches widen the satire: the very friendly young gentleman, exemplified by Mr. Mincin, whose endless attentions conceal self-serving social ambition; the military young gentleman, whose uniforms, parade knowledge, and theatrical posturing turn heroism into style; and the political young gentleman, who converts every conversation into partisan combat. Felix Nixon, the domestic young gentleman, completes the set as a mother-doted-on bachelor-in-training, comic in his self-importance yet harmlessly beloved. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.