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
DFW Interview from Russia
The NYRB blog unearths a 2006 interview with David Foster Wallace by a Russian journalist. “I will probably at some point finish a novel. Whether it will be good enough to publish, I don’t know.”
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“Stare at us stoned like eyes determined”
Rage Against the Machine frontman Zach De La Rocha has penned a poem dedicated to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
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Theories of Theories of the Novel
In the Boston Review, Jess Row wades – slowly, interestingly, not always coherently – into the perpetually roiling waters of Theory of the Novel, taking on the canon wars, realism vs. the avant-garde, etc. Is it really “a safe bet that your average well-informed critic today has never read a single work of criticism by a writer of color?” Probably not, even granting Row’s exception. But possibly worth arguing about. If you like that sort of thing.
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Citations Needed
Internet trivia addicts, today is your lucky day. The Houghton Library at Harvard is hiring a Wikipedian in Residence.
An Ashtray Instead of a Computer
FSG’s outstanding Work in Progress series drops in on the offices of Lapham’s Quarterly founder Lewis Lapham.
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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.