The Book of Wonderful Characters

by Wilson, Henry; Caulfield, James

• ISBN13: 9781108044400
• ISBN10: 1108044409
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-02-16
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

Printmaker James Caulfield (1764-1826) spent much of his career publishing illustrated books about 'remarkable persons'. He began his first series around 1788 and continued it sporadically from 1790 to 1795, with books on a similar theme continuing to appear in the first decades of the nineteenth century. More than forty years after his death, this collection of biographies (produced in collaboration with Henry Wilson (fl. 1820-30)) was republished in 1869. The edition's introduction explains that the renewed interest in these characters comes from the fact that 'we have nearly lost all, and are daily losing what little remains of, our individuality'. The vignettes, accompanied by engravings of each individual, describe a wide-ranging group - from the man who died aged 152 to a 'remarkable glutton' to a woman who lived on the smell of flowers - their only common factor being that they were in some way 'wonderful'.

Table of Contents

Preliminary

Francis Battalia, the stone-eater

Miss Whitehead, the bank nun

Daniel Dancer, the remarkable miser

Chevalier Desseasau, the vain dwarf

Matthew Lovat, who crucified himself

Baron D'Aguilar, of Starvation Farm

Old Books, of Ripon in Yorkshire

Wybrand Lolkes, the Dutch dwarf

Jacob Hall, the rope-dancer

Henry Constantine Jennings, the remarkable virtuoso

Henry Lemoine, an eccentric bookseller

Matthew Buchinger, the Little Man of Nuremburg

Henry Jenkins, the modern Methusaleh

Bertholde, prime minister to Alboinus

Lord Rokeby, of singular eccentricity

Foster Powell, the astonishing pedestrian

Joseph Boruwlaski, the Polish dwarf

Ann Moore, the fasting woman

Floram Marchand, the great water-spouter

Jane Lewson, an eccentric old lady

Peter the Wild Boy, of the woods of Hamelin

William Stevenson, a notorious beggar

John Broughton, a notorious pugilist

Joseph Clark, the posture-maker

Thomas Wood, the abstemious miller

Nathaniel Bentley, the well-known 'Dirty Dick'

Jeffrey Dunstan, Mayor of Garrat

Henry Dimsdale, Mayor of Garrat

George Morland, a celebrated painter

Joanna Southcott, an extraordinary fanatic

Thomas Laugher, commonly called 'Old Tommy'

Margaret McAvoy, the blind girl

Bampfylde Moore Carew, King of the Beggars

Thomas Cooke, the notorious Islington miser

Eve Fleigen, who lived on the smell of flowers

Mary Anne Talbot, the female sailor

Renwick Williams, commonly called the Monster

Jenny Darney, a character in Cumberland

Samuel Terry, the Botany Bay Rothschild

Daniel Lambert, of surprising corpulency

Thomas Britton, the musical small coal-man

Elizabeth Woodcock, who was buried in snow nearly eight days

John Elwes, the remarkable miser

Jeffery Hudson, dwarf to Charles I

Nice New, a well-known character at Reading

John Valerius, born without arms

Elizabeth Brownrigg, executed for cruelty and murder

John Smith, better known by the name of Buckhorse

Thomas Hills Everitt, the enormous baby

Elias Hoyle, of Sowerby, Yorkshire

Joseph Capper, the enemy of flies

Margaret Finch, Queen of the Gipsies

Miss Hawtin, born without arms

Charles Domery, the remarkable glutton

Thomas Parr, who died at the age of 152 years

Thomas Hudson, remarkable for his misfortunes

Claude Ambroise Seurat, the living skeleton

George Romondo, an eccentric mimic

Francis Trovillou, the horned man

Samuel McDonald, commonly called 'Big Sam'

Miss Harvey, the beautiful albiness

Sam House, the patriotic public

Barbara Urslerin, the hairy-faced woman

Mary East, alias James How

Daniel Cuerton, and his astonishing feats

Jemmy Gordon, an eccentric character of Cambridge

The Chevalier D'Eon, who passed as a woman

Peter Williamson, remarkable for his captivity and sufferings

Madam Teresia, the Corsican fairy

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