Penny Dreadful Cover

This is not a Victorian penny dreadful but rather a scholarly historical publication: the 1858 Philadelphia edition of Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox, edited by Lord John Russell. Volume I contains edited letters and biographical materials on the 18th-century Whig statesman Fox (born 1749). The work traces Fox's ancestry from Sir Stephen Fox (born 1627) and his father Henry Fox, first Lord Holland, then provides childhood anecdotes of Fox himself—excerpts from letters revealing his precocious intelligence, passionate temperament, and indulgent upbringing under his parents. The compiler outlines a seven-part organizational scheme covering Fox's life from birth through his death in 1806, with particular emphasis on his literary correspondence with Lord Holland (1790–1805) concerning classical poetry. The text includes historical and genealogical details establishing family connections to the Dukes of Richmond.