The London Spy

Ned Ward's The London Spy is one of the most vivid and engaging portrayals of popular culture in English literature. It recounts the fictitious adventures of a wide-eyed country bumpkin at large in the teeming metropolis of villains, whores, and hucksters at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Drawing upon his acute knowledge of the physical and social geography of London, Ward mixes fact and fiction, the serious and the ridiculous, to weave a rich collection of satiric and often bawdy tales and travels into a panoramic vision of contemporary life. Originally published in eighteen monthly parts between 1698 and 1700, The London Spy was an immediate success, though in later versions it was censored and abridged. This new edition gives full expression to Ward's masterpiece.