'A pocket book for old men and women, brides and grooms, young and old girls, dandies, frivolous men, womanizers, gamblers, etc., coming to Moscow for the winter, or allegorical instructions and advice for them, written by the author of the 'Satirical Messenger.' In three parts.' is a reprint in modern spelling of a unique book published in 1791 (only a few copies of the original remain in the world). Created by the talented Russian satirist, journalist, translator, and ethnographer Nikolai Ivanovich Strakhov, this book is a unique historical document that describes the life and customs of Moscow during the time of Catherine the Great. If you think that the capital's fashion for barber shops, limousines, and conspicuously expensive purchases is a distinctive feature of our time, you are sorely mistaken. You'll be surprised by how many amusing coincidences with current realities there are, how many similarities there are with the high society of 21st-century Moscow. Despite the passage of two and a quarter centuries, the author's sarcasm is thoroughly modern, the advice relevant, and the characters realistic.
To enhance the text's fullness, we've illustrated the book with reproductions of 18th-century engravings, mostly caricatures, depicting those same dandies, dandies, and frivolous figures.