PUNCH: The Lively Youth of a British Institution, 1841–1851.

By Richard D. Altick. Ohio State Univ. Press. 762 pp. $60

"Who knocked up Jerry Hall?" ran the headline on a midsummer edition of Punch, the satirical British weekly and dentist’s waiting-room accessory raised from the dead under new management last year, some four years after declining revenues forced its closure. Which tells you all you need to know about Mr. Punch’s sense of late-1990s humor.

Long gone are the days when the magazine was the alternative journal of record for the Victorian ruling class.

To continue reading this article, please download the PDF.