This work is a lexicon-style collection of humorous and witty material aimed at conversation, social gatherings and general literary amusement. Under multiple head-entries the editors gather anecdotes, humorous stories, witty remarks, epigrams, short sketches, social observations and commentary ? all designed to enliven table talk, salon discourse or intellectual leisure. The style is light, satirical and social-literary: it draws on the mores, arts, theatre, letters and public life of mid-19th-century German-speaking society. With an alphabetical or thematic structure, readers can look up topics and read short witty items and reflections that cultivate humour, wit and esprit. The tone is urbane and cultured rather than vulgar, reflecting the tastes of the bourgeois literate audience of its time. Moritz Gottlieb Saphir (born Moses Saphir 8 February 1795 in Lovas­Berény, Hungary - died 5 September 1858 in Baden near Vienna) was an Austrian-Hungarian satirical writer, critic and journalist. He began life in a Jewish orthodox family, trained in yeshivah in Pressburg and Prague, but moved into German-language literature, journalism and satire. He gained fame for biting theatre- and literary criticism in Vienna and Berlin, founded the satirical weekly Der Humorist, converted to Protestantism in 1832, and remained a prominent humourist and feuilletonist in the German-speaking world.