A recent survey of 19th century British literature uncovered advertising subtly placed within classic texts by authors like Dickens, Austen, and Thackeray. From Vanity Fair, for example: “‘My sisters say she has diamonds as big as pigeons’ eggs,’ George said, laughing. ‘How they must set off her complexion! Surely she avails herself of Madame A.T. Rowley’s Toilet Mask (or Face Gloves)…’” (via Book Bench)
Product Placement in 19th Century British Novels
Border Borrowing
The Haskell Free Library straddles the U.S.-Canadian border. Enter the library in the United States, and browse through the books in Canada.
●
●
Tuesday New Release Day: Larson, Nesbø, Brown, Earle, Udall, Marlantes
Purveyor of popular nonfiction Erik Larson has a new book out this week, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin. The Snowman by Jo Nesbø is a new entry in the increasingly popular Scandinavian thriller genre. Inward-looking graphic novelist Chester Brown’s latest, Paying for It is out, and musician and actor Steve Earle can now add “novelist” to his resume with the release of I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive. And new in paperback are a pair of big books, Brady Udall’s The Lonely Polygamist and Karl Marlantes’s Matterhorn.
●
●
2 comments:
Add Your Comment: Cancel reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Timely Books?
“In publishing, we see this play out in a number of ways. Marginalized writers are told by white editors, we need your stories now more than ever, as if we have not always needed them urgently. We are told our experiences are timely, exotic, and trendy. We are told our stories are not authentic if our characters do not suffer, as if the only way to prove that we are human is to bleed.” Natalia Sylvester on the erasure that comes when marginalized writers are constantly being told by the publishing industry and others that your book about your marginalized identity is ‘timely’.
Then I Go To Bed
Want to know how the other side is living? Here’s a detailed look at how hotel consultant and noted historian Stanley Turkel spends his Sundays.
●
●
An Excess of Symmetry
“What a perfect couple, two halves of the same little orange.” Guernica Magazine has a fantastic flash fiction piece by Andrés Neuman in anticipation of his upcoming collection of stories, The Things We Don’t Do.
As far as I can tell, this article is a hoax. There was no add agency with that name in the 16th century (not until the late 20th century), and most of the cited examples don’t exist, they are made-up.
A very amusing hoax! I was jolted by the extracts from Great Expectations and Vanity Fair, two books I had studied at school, never had I heard Miss Havisham speak so salaciously!
Checking my copies of Mansfield Park and Vanity Fair, and even when unable to locate my Dracula or Dickens I confirmed my suspicions.
However, do look at Wilde’s short story The Canterville Ghost, with at least three
products mentioned unabashedly in the text, by the American family who are completely unperturbed by the presence of the spirit who had been haunting Canterville Chase for centuries! I very much doubt any of the products mentioned (Pinkerton’s Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent, Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator and Doctor Dobell’s tincture) are real but would have to verify that statement.