Paperback
Condition: New
A collection of outstanding British periodical essays from the era in which the genre was inventedFrom the pens of spectators, ramblers, idlers, tattlers, hypochondriacs, connoisseurs, and loungers, a new literary genre emerged in eighteenth-century England: the periodical essay. Situated between classical rhetoric and the novel, the English essay challenged the borders between fiction and nonfiction prose and helped forge the tastes and values of an emerging middle class.This authoritative anthology is the first to gather in one volume the consummate periodical essays of the period. Included are the Spectator cofounders Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, literary lion Samuel Johnson, and Romantic recluse Thomas De Quincey, addressing a wide variety of topics from the oddities of virtuosos to the private lives of parrots and the fantastic horrors of opium dreams.In a lively and informative introduction, Denise Gigante situates the essayists in the context of the contemporary Republic of Letters and highlights the stylistic innovations and conventions that distinguish the periodical essay as a literary form. Critical notes on the essays, a chronology, descriptions and a map of key London sites, and a glossary of eighteenth-century English terms complete the anthology--a uniquely pleasurable survey of the golden era of British essays.
Paperback
Condition: New
Who made an enemy of two ladies through an apple? Why did Tar Baby keep on sayin' nothin'? Which royal residence is built on thirteen thousand piles? Following the best-selling book The World's Most Difficult Quiz comes this sequel which collects the most taxing questions from early King William's College General Knowledge papers published in the Guardian over many years. Again the book includes a new and devilishly difficult set of questions prepared especially for publication by quizmaster Pat Cullen. A challenge for the most erudite of minds*, The World's Most Difficult Quiz 2 is the ultimate general knowledge challenge.
*Perhaps not all the minds of The Secret Bookstore are the most erudite, but these most certainly are devilishly tricky!