The Freaks of Mayfair

First published in 1916, this is a set of satirical prose sketches of London West End types rather than a novel with a plot. Each chapter isolates a social specimen: the climber, the hostess, the beauty, the parasite, the aunt, and other figures who live by dinner lists, introductions, and borrowed prestige. Benson describes their houses, clothes, and conversation as a comic natural history of Mayfair. Settings are drawing-rooms, restaurants, and country weekends attached to town life. The book is a gallery of society caricatures, not a romance and not a memoir of named persons.

Bound in yellow buckram with a black cover image. Plain yellow endleaves. Plain black slipcase.