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The "Gentleman's magazine" section is a digest of selections from the weekly press; the "(Trader's) monthly intelligencer" section consists of news (foreign and domestic), vital statistics, a register of the month's new publications, and a calendar of forthcoming trade fairs.
The author has researched his own family history extensively and explains how he went about this and sets out the resulting discoveries which include finding a direct line of descent from the Plantagenet Kings of England which in turn established links to many royal and aristocratic families. There are many interesting characters revealed in the process, about whom the author comments, and there is much advice about how to research family history together with some warnings of some of the pitfalls which may mislead the unwary. This anatomy of a family provides some illuminating insights into social history and some entertaining anecdotes.
Operetta developed in the second half of the 19th century from the French opéra-comique and the more lighthearted German Singspiel. As the century progressed, the serious concerns of mainstream opera were sustained and intensified, leaving a gap between opéra-comique and vaudeville that necessitated a new type of stage work. Jacques Offenbach, son of a Cologne synagogue cantor, established himself in Paris with his series of opéras-bouffes. The popular success of this individual new form of entertainment light, humorous, satirical and also sentimental led to the emergence of operetta as a separate genre, an art form with its own special flavour and concerns, and no longer simply a "little...