The Whole Story, Viking 2001 (a division of Penguin)
Price: £3.50, an absolute bargain. I was expecting it to be £12 or something...
History: Me and Friend 4 were in London, visiting the National Portrait Gallery. I found this for sale in their shop, and for that price I couldn't refuse. Why we were there to begin with is itself is a bit of a long story...but basically, we blitzed the second hand book shops for a week. And we finally saw a chrysoberyl - there's a fantastic description of one in chapter 11, and I've always been curious...
Look: So it's not great. It's white and plastically on the outside, and according to dad it's going to fall to pieces. The cool bit is the pictures- a mix of original illustrations (which, of course, I thoroughly disapprove of...) and other stuff. A portrait whenever there's a classical reference, woodcuttings from Punch in answer to contempory points etc. This is especially cool in chapter eleven which is basically jam packed with obscure references to gemstones, literature, treasures, history, myths...it's a list of beautiful things, and the photos of ornate fans certainly add something.
Introduction/Appendices: It's just about the author - but makes up for it by containing the wonderful picture "A Private View at the Royal Acadamy"
No comments:
Post a Comment