Vexatious Trifles: From the Writings of Sir Fretful Murmur in His Book More Miseries by Matthew West (Paperback, 2010) for sale online

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'Vexatious Trifles' : From the writings of Sir Fretful Murmur in his book More MiseriesADDRESSED TO: The Morbid, The Melancholy and the Irritable Edited by Matthew West, Foreword by Colin Baker Illustrated by Jess Pillings In 1802 a gentleman wrote, under the pseudonym Sir Fretful Murmur, all of the vexations, irritations, anyances and frustrations of his daily life. He attached them to letters sent to Mr Whimble of the City of London. Whimble in turn published these works in 1804, the book twice being reprinted once in1806 and again in 1810. Since then the book has t seen publication for 200 years. Presented here are those miseries that so affect a gentleman at the dawn of a new century. Not for him are the worries of the Napoleonic wars, instead the frustrations of snuffing his own candles in the absence of a servant, being unable to draw the attention of a young lady at a busy party and being shaved by a barber with fingers that smell of pilchards. In fact what Murmur has presented us with here is observational comedy from the 1800s. He is a Georgian Larry David, a fact which in itself would surely make one of his many lists of miseries.In frosty weather descending a piece of ground here and there covered with thin hard ice, slipping down, in falling laying hold of the ankle of a prudish elderly spinster with whom you are walking, and drawing her with you.