Cobbett’s Advice to Young Men: and (incidentally) to Young Women in the Middle and Higher Ranks of Life

It is a guide on personal and social conduct, and is structured as a series of letters addressing various stages and roles in life, including youth, bachelorhood, romantic relationships, marriage, fatherhood, and citizenship. This book is of its time (middle of the 19th century) as Cobbett aims to impart practical knowledge and wisdom that he believes young people should acquire to lead fulfilling and responsible lives. He writes of fidelity, trustworthiness, sobriety and propriety of conduct as a Batchelor – it is an incredible insight into not only how people of their “rank” behaved but how they viewed the world and their place in it.