First presented at sessions organized by Michie at three conferences in 2001 and 2003, the 13 papers of this collection explore various aspects of the use and concept of vulgar words, vulgar places, common people, and images of the vulgar, with vulgar broadly defined as those things and people considered unrefined. Individual papers explore what was considered vulgar in topics that include The Pickwick Papers, users of the British Museum's Reading Room, Middlemarch, and India under the British. The contributors are academics in English and art history in the US. Bernstein is with the U. of Wisconsin-Madison, Michie is at Louisiana State U. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)