A Dictionary of Modern Slang, Cant, and Vulgar Words

London: John Camden Hotten, 1859. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Small 8vo. [5], ii-x, [1], ii-lxxxvi, [3], 2-160, [2] (pages of publisher's advertisements) pp. Brown pebble-grain publisher's cloth with several borders and the publisher's device in blind on each board, gilt lettering on the spine. Light brown coated endpapers and pastedowns. Bound by Bone & Son as evidenced by the binder's ticket on the rear pastedown. Illustrated with a frontispiece. Completing the title page: "Used at the Present Day in the Streets of London; The Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; The Houses of Parliament; The Dens of St. Giles; and the Palaces of St. James. Preceded by a History of Cant and Vulgar Language from the Time of Henry VIII; Shewing its Connection with the Gipsey Tongue; with Glossaries of Two Secret Languages, Spoken by the Wandering Tribes of London, the Costermongers, and the Patterers. Oxford DNB, Simon Eliot, "Hotten, John Camden (1832-1873)". Hotten's publishing and writing careers were prolific, and he had a reputation for dealing in controversial material. This dictionary is an illuminating snapshot of Victorian London and its colloquial speech. A small repair to the foot of the spine and an erasure to the free front endpaper.