R. S. Surtees - Complete Works of R. S. Surtees

The Complete Works of

R. S. SURTEES

(1805-1864)

Contents

Delphi Classics 2018

Version 1

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The Complete Works of

R. S. SURTEES

By Delphi Classics, 2018

Complete Works of R. S. Surtees

First published in the United Kingdom in 2018 by Delphi Classics.

Delphi Classics, 2018.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 117 6

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The gatehouse of Hamsterley Hall, County Durham Surtees birthplace

Hamsterley Hall, County Durham

Illustrated by John Leech

This satirical comic novel was first published in 1843, having been serialised in The New Sporting Magazine from 1838 to 1839. It is the first full-length novel to feature John Jorrocks. Surtees comic protagonist had first appeared in short pieces, published throughout the 1830s and collected as Jorrocks Jaunts and Jollies in 1838. Jorrocks is a cockney grocer turned Master of Hounds and the novels energetic, episodic and sprawling plot relates the comic scrapes in which the character finds himself embroiled. Handley Cross was not initially a big hit, partly due to its focus on the increasingly niche world of the hunt, which was becoming more and more the exclusive preserve of the upper classes (a transition that Surtees novel chronicles). As the nineteenth century progressed, however, the book (and Jorrocks) became increasingly popular, partly due to rural nostalgia in an increasingly industrialised age.

Although not set in any specific real location, Surtees based the landscape of the novel on the north of England. The same could not be said of the novels characters. Jorrocks Geordie sidekick James Pigg is based on Joe Cross, a Slaley huntsman and the episode where Pigg jumps into a melon frame is based on a real event involving Cross.

How the novel first appeared in its serial publication a monthly part

Title page of the first edition

Frontispiece of an 1854 edition

John Leech (1817-1864), the caricaturist and illustrator of many of Surtees novels.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LORD JOHN SCOTT.

ONE OF THE BEST OF BRITISH SPORTSMEN,

This Volume is Inscribed,

BY HIS OBLIGED AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR

M R. JORROCKS, HAVING for many years maintained his popularity, it is hoped that, with the aid of the illustrations, he is now destined for longevity.

T he Author, in the present edition, not being tied to space or quantity, has had a better opportunity of developing his sporting hero than before.

The reader will have the kindness to bear in mind, that the work merely professes to be a tale, and does not aspire to the dignity of a novel.