Pelham

A young dandy of no particular convictions makes his way through London society, the diplomatic service and a murder investigation, dressed better than anybody. Bulwer-Lytton published it at twenty-five and it is said to be the reason English gentlemen wore black in the evening for the next century. Fifty-nine plates from 1780 to 1868, with portraits by Thomas Lawrence and satires by Thomas Rowlandson, catch the dandy's world of fashion, politics and the stage.