william hogarth
The furious tug of war between 18th-century Whigs and Tories
George Owers evokes the seismic cultural divisions between the parties – with different coffee houses attended, wines drunk, doctors consulted and fashions preferred
Making the fur fly: Mary and the Rabbit Dream, by Noémi Kiss-Deáki
When a poor peasant named Mary Toft claimed to have given birth to 17 rabbits, many in Georgian Britain believed her, including senior members of the medical profession
Scrawled outpourings of love and defiance
Examples of 18th-century graffiti range from romantic rhymes scratched on windowpanes to the haunting marks of political prisoners incised on dungeon walls
Still funny after all these years
A new biography of William Hogarth pays dutiful homage to his satirical genius but does not challenge its predecessors, writes Philip Hensher
