Mrs. Caudle's curtain lectures ([New ed.])

First published in "Punch" in 1845, this book gives Mrs Caudle's incessant petty lectures to her unfortunate husband - enacted in the matrimonial bed at the close of each day when he is compelled to lie and listen.

In Mrs Caudle's eyes he can do no right and she lays the blame for all their ills squarely at his feet.

Mrs Caudle is adept at inconsistency and her melodramatic talent for turning molehills into mountains means her husband's most innocent acts - from eating out to lending an umbrella - are construed as monstrous deeds that will surely lead their whole family to death and damnation.

The lectures are a war of attriction between the irressistible force of Mrs Caulde's tongue and the stamina of her poor husband's tortured ears.

With no means of escape, the doomed Mr Caudle's only means of defence is to alternate mustering the odd rejoinder and attempting to feign sleep.

Resistance, however, is always futile.