Sketches and Travels in London (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

In this book of trenchant essays—framed as letters to a fictional nephew, “Bob”—Thackeray documents his variously amusing, annoying, and appalling experiences in Britain’s capital city. He attends balls, dinners, children’s parties, gentlemen’s clubs, the opera, and even a public hanging, and has a wicked observation to make about each.