Female Tatler (Everyman's Library)

The Female Tatler was a popular scandal sheet published in London in 1709 and 1710. With a cruel humor verging on the libelous, its author Mrs. Crackenthorpe and her successors poked fun at London's well-known citizens three times every week. Their ironic interest in the "improvement of ladies" at best disguised a more prurient-yet much more interesting-portrayal of the capital's drawing rooms, gaming clubs and India Houses of eighteenth century London.