Handley Cross

First published in collected form in the mid-nineteenth century, this comic novel follows John Jorrocks, a rich Cockney grocer, who becomes master of foxhounds at the spa of Handley Cross. He brings London slang and tradesman's sense into a sporting world of hunts, inn dinners, and local grandees. The plot is a season of runs, quarrels, subscriptions, and social climbing rather than a single intrigue. Surtees fills the book with huntsmen, doctors, and hangers-on who live for the chase. It is a satire of the hunting field and of new money in the shires, written as sporting narrative.

Bound in red artificial leather decorated in gold. Pale yellow endleaves. Gold slipcase.