George Cruikshank

In this reflective celebration of George Cruikshank, Thackeray begins by lamenting how adulthood, ambition, money, and social striving crowd out the gratitude, friendship, and imaginative freedom of youth. That melancholy note deepens into a tribute to an artist whose comic prints can briefly restore the lost wonder of boyhood, old storybooks, holidays, and the enchanted laughter of crowded print-shop windows. Cruikshank emerges as a master of humorous illustration: warm rather than merely satirical, humane rather than cruel, and equally at home in nursery tales, fairy stories, moral sketches, and urban caricature. Thackeray praises his power to animate grotesque figures with tenderness, to make dull or preachy subjects lively, and to turn ordinary people—dustmen, beadles, charity children, sailors, dandies, and drunkards—into unforgettable characters. He singles out works such as the "Philoprogenitiveness" print, Points of Humor, Burns's Jolly Beggars, Life in Paris, and Tom and Jerry, while also recalling Cruikshank's political caricatures and his attacks on vice, especially gin. The result is a portrait of an artist whose wit, sympathy, and visual invention capture both the comedy and the energy of modern life. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.