Enthusiasms - Hardcover

Girouard, Mark

3,45

20 Bewertungen von Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0711233292 ISBN 13: 9780711233294

Verlag: Frances Lincoln, 2011

Alle Exemplare der Ausgabe mit dieser ISBN anzeigen:

Book by Girouard Mark

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Cr�ticas:

A delightful bouquet of oddities to charm and intrigue.

Editor's choice: A delightful bouquet of oddities to charm and intrigue.

A delightful bouquet of oddities to charm and intrigue.

This is the perfect bedside book and journey companion and, although a mixed assortment, no rag-bag of warmed-up journalism. I cannot think of a better house-present - or a Christmas one, come to that, even if it's only just October.

Dr Girouard wastes not one single word, but through this conciseness, he creates a discreet self-portrayal that is unassuming witty and sympathetic. The book is, he says, 'designed for pleasure not instruction' - and a very unusual pleasure is what it offers.

The book becomes unputdownable (or should that be unputtable down?) when it becomes autobiographical, and Girouard writes compellingly about his family.

The author muses in an unbuttoned mood about literary and architectural connections.

As an exercise in method I enjoyed Mark Girouard's corrective essays in Enthusiasms. He makes a nice virtue of dead-ends.

Rather like a bumper issue of 'Notes and Queries'.

Rese�a del editor:

Does a neglected masterpiece by Jane Austen enshrine her first love affair? Who was Vita Sackville West's real grandfather? What clues are there to the identity of 'Walter', doyen of Victorian pornographers? When and why did P.G. Wodehouse mutate from hack to genius? Was Oscar Wilde really down and out in Paris? Was Brideshead really Madresfield?
These and other excursions into literary or social history have developed out of Mark Girouard's spare time enthusiasms, as diversions from his main occupation as an architectural historian. In nine essays he calls attention to points that have not been noticed before, corrects fallacies that have got into general circulation, suggests, identifies, redates, refutes, or pours a little cold water on unjustified romanticisms. Three further essays sample another enthusiasm, his own family background, and introduce characters such as the dwarf who had to stand on a bench to address the South African Parliament, the colonial governor who fell in love with his niece, and the dowager duchess with whom he spent his childhood on the edge of the park at Chatsworth.

��ber diesen Titel� kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.