Douglas William Jerrold (1803-1857) was the son of an actor-manager. After some time in the Navy and as an apprentice printer he became a playwright and later a journalist. He was a contemporary and friend of Charles Dickens. As a journalist he worked for Punch magazine in which Mrs Caudle’s Curtain Lectures were serialised, to be published in book form in 1846.
Job Caudle, the ‘hero’ of the book is a Victorian shopkeeper whose wife finds she can only talk to him without interruption in bed. Caudle, who outlives his wife, finds he can no longer sleep easily because of his memory of these ‘lectures’ and resolves to exorcise his wife’s memory by recording the lectures, it seems with a view to future publication for the edification of others. Jerrold’s humour shines through this insight into Victorian middle class culture.
Summary by Martin Clifton
IntroductionLecture 1: Mr. Caudle has lent five pounds to a friendLecture 2: Mr. Caudle has been at a tavern with a friend, and isLecture 3: Mr. Caudle joins a club –Lecture 4: Mr. Caudle has been called from his bed to bail Mr. Prettyman from the watch-houseLecture 5: Mr. Caudle has remained downstairs till past one, with a friendLecture 6: Mr. Caudle has lent an acquaintance the family umbrellaLecture 7: Mr. Caudle has ventured a remonstrance on his day’s dinner: cold mutton and no pudding. – Mrs Caudle defends the cold shoulder.Lecture 8: Caudle has been made a mason – Mrs Caudle indignant and curiousLecture 9: Mr Caudle has been to Greenwich fairLecture 10: On Mr. Caudle’s shirt buttonsLecture 11: Mrs Caudle suggests the her dear mother shouldLecture 12: Mr. Caudle having come home a little late, declares that henceforthLecture 13: Mrs Caudle has been to see her dear mother – Caudle on theLecture 14: Mrs Caudle thinks itLecture 15: Mr. Caudle again stayed out late. Mrs Caudle, at first injured and violent, melts.Lecture 16: Baby is to be christened; Mrs Caudle canvasses the merits of probable godfathersLecture 17: Caudle in the course of the day has ventured to question the economy ofLecture 18: Caudle, whilst walking with his wife, has been bowed to by a younger and even prettier woman than Mrs CaudleLecture 19: Mrs Caudle thinksLecture 20:Lecture 21: Mr. Caudle has not actedLecture 22: Caudle comes home in the evening, as Mrs Caudle hasLecture 23: Mrs CaudleLecture 24: Mrs Caudle dwells on Caudle’sLecture 25: Mrs Caudle, wearied of Margate, hasLecture 26: Mrs Caudle’s first night in FranceLecture 27: Mrs Caudle returns to her native land.Lecture 28: Mrs Caudle has returned home. The house (of course)Lecture 29: Mrs Caudle thinksLecture 30: Mrs Caudle complains of theLecture 31: Mrs Caudle complains very bitterly that Mr. Caudle hasLecture 32: Mrs Caudle discourses of maids-of-all-work and maids in general. Mr. CaudleLecture 33: Mrs Caudle has discovered that Caudle is a railway directorLecture 34: Mrs Caudle, suspecting that Mr. Caudle has made his will, is onlyLecture 35: Mrs CaudleLecture the Last: Mrs Caudle has taken cold; the tragedy of thin shoesPostscript
