This novel comprises two separate and somewhat oddly-matched narrative strands. Part of the novel is constituted of a sentimental narrative following the conversations and excursions of a family of (in the narrator's words) a 'well-regulated and highly gifted family' and culminating in a marriage. The other part consists of a series of satirical sketches of gambling culture in London. In the latter section, the cant and the deceptive practices of high-society gamblers are detailed in depth, as are the rules of the different games that attract the gamblers' attention. These sketches appear intermittently in the course of the sentimental narrative, through the conceit of an ex-gentleman gambler writing to one of the aristocratic characters about his former life.

Mr Fiske (a politician and one of the gentleman gamblers who reappears throughout the sketches) speaks in Irish accent. A number of the Standard English speakers mimic his 'brogue', an especially interesting example of which occurs in volume 1, pages 171-2, when a Standard English speaker imitates Friske's accent while reading aloud one of his letters, in spite of the fact that it is written in Standard English. A social climbing Irish English speaker, named Twaddle Gascon, also appears, whose speech is additionally marked by h-addition.
The novel features a number of Cockney speakers from the London underworld, including the prize-fighter Bill Wack'em, the gambling club owner and former fishmonger Mr. Crockford (who was a real historical personage and reputedly spoke in a Cockney accent - see Dictionary of National Biography) and a 'hellite' (a patron of the gambling dens). The cockney dialect representation is chiefly distinguished by v-w- tranposition and lack of subject-verb concord.

Unexpectedly nonstandard characters: None of the waiters at Crockford's establishment is represented as a dialect speaker, in spite of the fact that Crockford himself is.