Gambling permeated the daily lives of eighteenth-century Britons of all classes. This book explicates the relationship between the rampant gambling in eighteenth-century England, the new forms of gambling-inspired capitalism that transformed British society, and novels that interrogate the new socio-economy of long odds and lucky breaks.
'Richard has constructed a conceptually sophisticated intertwining of historical analysis of the eighteenth-century culture of gambling with a series of effective readings of novels and visual images. This is a fine book on the culture of eighteenth century gambling that speaks eloquently to the stakes of our present time.' - Ross Hamilton, Associate Professor of English, Columbia University, USA