Charles James Lever (1806-72) was an Irish novelist and raconteur. His escapades at Trinity College, Dublin where he took his degree in medicine in 1831 are incorporated into the plots of several of his novels. Prior to embarking on his medical studies he had travelled to Canada where he journeyed into the backwoods before having to flee for his life, and again this provided material for his fiction. His degree earned him an appointment as a country doctor but his conduct was censured by the authorities. In 1837 his first novel The Confessions of Harry Lorrequer was serialised in the newly established Dublin University Magazine, appearing in book form two years later, by which time Lever had settled as a fashionable physician in Brussels, publishing further novels following on from Lorrequer's success. In 1842 he returned to Dublin, surrounding himself with a coterie of Irish wits, but the pace of life proved too great and in 1845 he set off on an extended tour of Europe whilst continuing to write. Later in life he took on consulships in Spezia and Trieste but had become increasingly depressed in spirits, unable to be alone and dependent on literary encouragement. This collection of humorous sketches, or table-talk, originally appeared in Blackwood's before book publication in 1864.