It is to be expected that any book written as long ago as 1845 is, in and of its very nature, dated; that's a given. Humor, alas,dies the death of old age far faster than other forms of literature. But, except for certain words and expressions, (which might be difficult at any age, given the difference between American and British English), this book was still vastly humorous to me; it is still easy to see why the original publication of these "lectures" was the making of the British humor magazine "Punch". It is as fine an example of well-written humorous fiction as I would hope to find.