Gary Dyer breaks new ground by surveying and interpreting hundreds of satirical poems and prose narratives published in Britain during the Romantic period. These works have been neglected by literary scholars, satisfied that satire disappeared in the late eighteenth century. Dyer argues that satire continued to be a major and widely-read genre, and that contemporary political and social conflicts gave new meanings to conventions inherited from classical Rome and eighteenth-century England. He includes a bibliography of more than 700 volumes containing satirical verses.

Gary Dyer breaks new ground by surveying and interpreting hundreds of satirical poems and prose narratives published in Britain during the Romantic period. These works have been neglected by literary scholars, satisfied that satire disappeared in the late eighteenth century. Dyer argues that satire continued to be a major and widely-read genre, and that contemporary political and social conflicts gave new meanings to conventions inherited from classical Rome and eighteenth-century England. He includes a bibliography of more than 700 volumes containing satirical verses.