Highly readable and well-researched..This hitherto untold story of card-play enriches historical understandings of the eighteenth-century middling sort.
CULTURAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
In a lively, accessible style, the author argues that card playing reflected as well as epitomized the moral and cultural values of the new 'middling sorts,' especially the ideals of politeness and sociability, thus accounting for its ... Read morepopularity. . . . [A]n entertaining and enjoyable book. Recommended.
CHOICE
[A]n impressively researched monograph . . . that makes a significant and well-informed contribution to our understanding of middle class sociability and particularly the role of gaming in the social life of the English middle classes. No longer will historians be able to discuss gaming as solely, or mainly, an aristocratic and plebeian vice.
HISTOIRE SOCIALE/SOCIAL HISTORY
'Mullin's lively and very readable account of a surprisingly overlooked aspect of middle-class leisure in the long eighteenth century makes a valuable and long-overdue contribution to social and cultural history. It is based upon extensive archival research as well as an imaginative use of printed sources and other kinds of material evidence. Mullin takes a fresh look at the perils and pleasures of the card table from the perspective of those respectable citizens who were supposed to know their limits, in financial and moral terms. She delves into surprising aspects of the subject, such as the pedagogical uses of gambling as a form of children's education, as well as the dangers entailed for women and men of polite reputation in getting too carried away with the thrill of the game. A Sixpence at Whist provides surprising new insights into middling sociability, including an invaluable go-to guide on the rules and conduct of eighteenth-century card games.
Helen Berry, Professor of British History, Newcastle University 'Mullin is an unusually accomplished writer, whose prose not infrequently reads like an eighteenth-century novel. She is almost incapable of writing a boring sentence. This is lively, exciting, well-written material which will make a real contribution to our understanding not just of gaming but of the important (and understudied) topic of middle-class leisure.
Margaret Hunt, Professor of History, Uppsala University Show Less