Theodore Cuttle: half-educated, dubiously genteel, and an infamous rake and roustabout of East London, with uncertain habits and disreputable friends. But a fig for that, since he has lately put his talents to work in a new arena in this excitingly modern, technological Victorian age: a jockey of the shellac disc, he is one of the new young bucks who provide savage, passionate, fascinatingly rhythmical music, for the open-air ballrooms sprouting up all over old Europe and the new Americas. He is a deejay, a glamorous young punk, powered by rhythm, bass and steam. And a murder here and there, accompanied by the odd lovely young filly, well, that's just the vinegar on the jellied eels... Cover image by https://openclipart.org/user-detail/Firkin and https://openclipart.org/user-detail/j4p4n