Excerpt from Portraits of the SixtiesI devote my opening chapter to these few rapid and disconnected illustrations of London life in the early sixties as a general introduction, which I propose to set off by written descriptions. These portraits bring back the likenesses of men and women who were famous, or conspicuous, or peculiar and odd and eccentric in the years which, at the suggestion of Mr. Fisher Unwin, I am endeavoring to illustrate and to bring back to life for the public of the present century. Many of the portraits bring their own fame with them, and must ever be studied with interest. Others are the likenesses of men and women who made themselves, or were made, conspicuous in their own time, and in every instance the likeness is that of one on whom, for some reason, the attention of the world was for a while directed, and each portrait tells a story characteristic of the events and the movements occupying attention just then. After this short and prefatory chapter I shall go on to pass my portraits in review. I may add that I am not relying on contemporary records for any of my descriptions, and that I am telling of men and women whom I have seen and most of whom I have known. I have to make a further explanation.

About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.