The Man of Pleasure's Pocket Book
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The Man of Pleasure's Pocket-Book was a pocket-sized memorandum book which included etiquette advice and a guide to leisure activities in London. Two "annual" editions were published in 1780 and 1781. Modern historians refer to it for its evidence of men's sexual culture in Georgian England, exemplified by its ranking of notable women by their attractiveness and its notes on the availability of prostitutes.
Annual pocket-books were a form of combined journal and periodical publication, which began appearing in England in the 1730s and were widely popular by the 1750s. They provided blank spaces for note-taking, storage pockets for personal items, and articles on entertaining or useful subjects. They were carried as a mobile reference text for daily life, supplanting the almanac as the go-to personal calendar.[1] The Man of Pleasure's Pocket-Book is bound in red sheepskin leather, with pockets in the cover for users to store paper ephemera or money.[2][3] The frontispiece features an engraving (illustrating fashionable dress in 1780,[2] and the Royal Academy Exhibition of 1780 in 1781).[4] The first section provides fifty-two lined pages intended for the owner to take notes.[2][4] These are described as including "the usual tables"; generally, pocket-books of this era included pre-labeled tables for recording social engagements and weekly expenses.[1] Princeton University Library holds a copy of the Pocket-Book owned by a British land agent who filled it with the expenses of his customers, including those of the colonial administrator Thomas Pownall.[3]
Following the blank section for note-taking, the book includes several articles about society life and leisure activities. The 1780 books contained eight articles: a list of "public Diversions" and the logistics of attending them; advice on the suitable clothes for specific occasions; a list of "the most elegant Amusements in Vogue"; advice on urban etiquette, for country gentlemen and students; tips for making pleasant conversation; a list of hotels; a ranking of notable women, described as an "annual Register of Toasts upon the haut, milieu, and petit Tons"; and a dictionary of modern slang.[5] The 1781 pocket-book also included eight articles, but on slightly different topics: advice on fashion for the year; extracts of elegant writing in both French and English, "of the greatest Utility of Scholars who aim at writing French and English with Ease and Elegance"; a treatise on dancing, including a discussion of the new cotillion and "Minuet de la Cour"; an expanded list of "Diversions" in London; a list of public leisure facilities in Bath, Somerset; an exercise routine practiced by the Royal Guards; advice on etiquette for "a Man of Pleasure"; and a piece titled "Circuit of the Judges".[4]