Cunningly illustrated, yes, and cleverly rhymed; but merely events in the life of a proper Victorian couple, even so. Gerrard's treatment of the Favershams--Charles Augustus and his good wife Amelia Gwen--is slightly satirical, but not consistently or meaningfully so. (Charles ""seemed to rise above the rest"" on the soccer field--but a tennis player, in a later scene, also levitates.) Indeed these squat, doll-like figures (a squashed, full-color variant on Edward Gorey's Victorian exoticism) can be surprisingly touching--especially as a tender, newly-wed pair. Everything about the book, nonetheless, marks it as Imperial British: from India's ""jolly regimental balls"" (and hilariously pictured crocodile hunt) to the Favershams' Gloucestershire domicile--where, ""content as anyone could please,"" the Favershams lived ""Among the spacious lawns and trees,/ With lots of servants, maids and cooks,/ For Charles made money writing books."" But the intriguing pictorial detail, and the very oddness of the doings, may pique some children's fancy.