An Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting is the first English book on the craft of nagging. A bitingly funny social satire, it is also an advice book, a handbook of anti-etiquette, and a comedy of manners. The Art provides a fascinating glimpse into eighteenth-century daily life, the treatment of servants and dependants and the bringing up of children, and is a thrilling precursor to the art of Jane Austen.