CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE

John Sutherland

ISBN 10: 190521197X / ISBN 13: 9781905211975

Edité par Random House Books, London, 2008

A propos de cet article

CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE. John Sutherland. Illustrated by Martin Rowson. Random House Publishing, London 2008 First Edition ISBN 9781905211975 290pp Illustrated Hardback. This mint unread copy is bound in cloth covered boards with bright gilt titling to the spine. The unclipped dust wrapper is also in mint condition. How much heavier was Thackeray's brain than Walt Whitman's? Which novels do American soldiers read? When did cigarettes start making an appearance in English literature? And, while we're about it, who wrote the first Western, is there any link between asthma and literary genius, and what really happened on Dorothea's wedding night in Middlemarch? In Curiosities of Literature, John Sutherland contemplates the full import of questions such as these, and attempts a few answers in a series of essays that are both witty and eclectic. His approach is also unashamedly discursive. An account of the fast-working Mickey Spillane, for example, leads to a consideration of the substances, both legal and illegal, that authors have employed to boost their creative energies. An essay on good and bad handwriting points out in passing that Thackeray could write the Lord's Prayer on the back of a stamp. As for Mary Shelley, a brief recital of the circumstances in which she wrote Frankenstein stops off to consider what impact the miserable summer weather of 1816 had on the future path of English literature. Of course, it is debatable whether knowledge of these arcane topics adds to the wisdom of nations, but it does highlight the random pleasures to be found in reading literature and reading about it. As John Sutherland rightly asks, 'Why else read?' Ref KK2.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE
• Éditeur: Random House Books, London
• Date de parution: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 190521197X
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9781905211975
• Reliure: Hardback
• Illustrateur: Martin Rowson
• Édition: First Edition
• État de l'article: Mint
• État de la jaquette: Mint

A propos de ce titre

Synopsis

One of our best-known and best-loved literary critics turns his attention to the more bizarre areas of literature in this miscellany of fact and trivia. Which author had the heaviest brain? Whose manuscript was inadvertently used to light a fire? What was the original title of 1984? This is the ideal anthology of useless information for all literary devotees.

À propos de l?auteur

John Sutherland is Lord Northcliffe Professor Emeritus of Modern English Literature at University College London and previously taught at the California Institute of Technology. He writes regularly for the Guardian, The Times and the New York Times, and is the author of many books including Curiosities of Literature, Is Henry V a War Criminal? (with Cedric Watts), biographies of Walter Scott, Stephen Spender and the Victorian elephant Jumbo, and The Boy Who Loved Books, a memoir.