From Corinthians to Hell-Born Babes - The Regency underworld revealed
Francis Grose’s Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue and later versions and editions contain hundreds of words and phrases that take us into a colourful, violent and alien late Georgian and Regency world. Here we encounter criminals, gamesters, sportsmen, gentlemen and prostitutes as they fight, cheat, thieve, gamble and carouse their way through London’s underworld. The dictionaries themselves are all arranged in alphabetical order of the terms being defined, making it impossible to find a word for a specific thing, or browse related terms, without reading through the entire volume. This book arranges the words and phrases from two editions of Grose, Pierce Egan’s version of the book and John Bee’s Slang: A Dictionary to make them accessible both thematically and by an index. This book is designed for anyone interested in the period, its language and what it reveals and can be used alongside the dictionaries themselves - available in both reprints and e-versions.
