CRICK, Susan Pseud. MAYHEW, Horace. Letters about Missusses by a Maid of All-Work: addressed to the editor of Diogenes, to a friend in her neighbourhood, to a friend in the country, to a friend in town, to her mother, and to her young man; in which she sets forth in a peculiarly interesting manner, the domestic grievances of servants in general. London: Houlston & Stoneman,. 1854.
8vo., sometime bound in half green morocco over marbled paper covered boards, lettered in gilt on upper board. With humorous illustrations. Spine sunned, a little rubbing to edges otherwise a very good copy of a scarce item.
First edition of this humorous satire on the trials and tribulations of being a maid in Victorian England.
Horace Mayhew had a lengthy career in journalism, serving as sub-editor of Punch with Douglas Jerrold and William Makepeace Thackeray and as editor of the Comic Almanac. In 1845 he was on the staff of contributors to George Cruikshank's Table Book, and was an early contributor to the Illustrated London News. His publications include the humorous sketches ‘Change for a Shilling’, ‘Model Men’, and ‘Model Women and Children’ (all 1848; published in 1872 in one volume entitled Wonderful People); ‘Whom to Marry and How to Get Married’ (1848); ‘A Plate of Heads’, with drawings by Gavarni (1849); ‘The Toothache’ (1849); ‘Guy Faux’ (1849); and ‘Letters Left at the Pastry-Cook's’ (1853).
Scarce: OCLC Lists BL, Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, National Library of Scotland and University of Melbourne.
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