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'... punctuated by little asides, pert, personal and peppery, seasoning for a warmed-over olla podrida of literary anecdote and authorial arcana.'
--The Times, 30 August 2008
--The Times, 30 August 2008
Book Description
One of our foremost critics tours some of the more arcane byways of literature
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I always enjoy John Sutherland's writings having first come across his literary columns in The Guardian. I've already read his How to Read a Novel and The Boy Who Loved Books, so when Curiosities of Literature came out a month or two ago it was a bit of a "must have". In fact it turned out to be the perfect book to take on holiday, being very easy to dip into and always providing entertainment in odd moments reclaimed from the swimming pool or excursions.
At first glance it appears to be yet another of those attractively-produced little books aimed at the Christmas market - the sort of thing which is opened with a laugh but soon bores. However, anyone who loves books will find plenty to interest here, some light and inconsequential facts (the first spliff in literature, the shortest poem, the longest book etc), but even these, with Sutherland's immense store of knowledge, are set in a context which illuminate rather merely amuse. (and incidentally, the first spliff appears in Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and the longest book is Clarissa by Samuel Richardson and is about a million words long).
I loved the chapter on food, "Literary Baked Meats" which describes the gastronomic preferences of various writers and left me wanting to go to the Savoy to have an Omelette Arnold Bennett (a wish which is easily denied on discovering that it costs about £50 - and can also be made at home). Sutherland has found are many food-based "curiosities", not least discovering foods which were first mentioned in literature and then went on to become products in real-life. For example, the early science-fiction novel The Coming Race (1871) by Bulwer-Lytton shares the "hollow-earth" theme of Jules Verne's Journey To the Centre of the Earth, and describes a life-giving fluid under the earth's crust called "vril". Scottish manufacturer John Lawson Johnston saw a business opportunity there and added "Bov" (for beef) to the front of Bulwer-Lytton's "vril" and as they say, the rest is history.
IMG_4014 Stories like this kept me entertained while on holiday in France a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the chapter "Tools of the Trade" in which Sutherland gives his readers such information as the first book written on a typewriter (Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer) and the first authors to use computers (with Desmond Bagley and Arthur C Clarke being the main contenders). I have to say, that for the latter category, I remember reading an article by Terry Pratchett in a mid-80s computer magazine about his use of the Amstrad PCW.
There are 13 chapters in the book including Mammon in the Book Trade (interesting examples of produce placement in novels), Name Games (including pseudonyms and the stories behind their choice), Literary Records (worst novelist ever, longest time to write a book, most misquoted etc). These are not presented in list format but are well-written self-contained pieces. Sutherland acknowledges the help of Messrs Google and Xerox but I don't think anyone without Sutherland's vast literary knowledge would have been able to come up with such a comprehensive set of topics or researched them to the same depth as him. I found this a very satisfying read which will occupy an important place in my "books about books" category.
At first glance it appears to be yet another of those attractively-produced little books aimed at the Christmas market - the sort of thing which is opened with a laugh but soon bores. However, anyone who loves books will find plenty to interest here, some light and inconsequential facts (the first spliff in literature, the shortest poem, the longest book etc), but even these, with Sutherland's immense store of knowledge, are set in a context which illuminate rather merely amuse. (and incidentally, the first spliff appears in Rider Haggard's King Solomon's Mines and the longest book is Clarissa by Samuel Richardson and is about a million words long).
I loved the chapter on food, "Literary Baked Meats" which describes the gastronomic preferences of various writers and left me wanting to go to the Savoy to have an Omelette Arnold Bennett (a wish which is easily denied on discovering that it costs about £50 - and can also be made at home). Sutherland has found are many food-based "curiosities", not least discovering foods which were first mentioned in literature and then went on to become products in real-life. For example, the early science-fiction novel The Coming Race (1871) by Bulwer-Lytton shares the "hollow-earth" theme of Jules Verne's Journey To the Centre of the Earth, and describes a life-giving fluid under the earth's crust called "vril". Scottish manufacturer John Lawson Johnston saw a business opportunity there and added "Bov" (for beef) to the front of Bulwer-Lytton's "vril" and as they say, the rest is history.
IMG_4014 Stories like this kept me entertained while on holiday in France a couple of weeks ago. I enjoyed the chapter "Tools of the Trade" in which Sutherland gives his readers such information as the first book written on a typewriter (Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer) and the first authors to use computers (with Desmond Bagley and Arthur C Clarke being the main contenders). I have to say, that for the latter category, I remember reading an article by Terry Pratchett in a mid-80s computer magazine about his use of the Amstrad PCW.
There are 13 chapters in the book including Mammon in the Book Trade (interesting examples of produce placement in novels), Name Games (including pseudonyms and the stories behind their choice), Literary Records (worst novelist ever, longest time to write a book, most misquoted etc). These are not presented in list format but are well-written self-contained pieces. Sutherland acknowledges the help of Messrs Google and Xerox but I don't think anyone without Sutherland's vast literary knowledge would have been able to come up with such a comprehensive set of topics or researched them to the same depth as him. I found this a very satisfying read which will occupy an important place in my "books about books" category.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is another in the long line of "soundbite" books aimed at the market that craves trivia. Dealing with arcane literary matters -a book about books- there were a lot of pages I skipped as they were full of useless information. Useless information does come in handy for say, pub quizzes; my gripe is that the useless information presented here is written poorly.
Long lists of facts are boring as all lists from shopping to check inevitably are, hence some form of prose must be used. In this reader's eyes Sutherland's uncalled for political put downs and unfunny asides in each chapter detracts attention from the little curiosities he is imparting. When William Thackeray said The Virginians was the worst novel he's ever written, a friend retorted "the worst novel anyone wrote" Sutherland couldn't resist a witticism of his own. With friends like that, who needs critics?
Of course there are strange vignettes that will amuse and inform, however, most of this book summarises well known facts that book lovers already know. Either that wallpaper goes or I do. The Hemingway solution. John Ruskin's alleged fear of...we'll just call it hair. Too many "uncuriosities" for me.
This curio little book fails to deliver which is sad as it could have been a marvel. Instead it's another one for the QI generation lovers of scrap paper. The funniest thing in this book and I'm not being sarcastic is before the index pages in the sparse Some Indical Curiosities sections, there is the clever-
Best indical jest: William F. Buckley, in the complimentary copy of his latest book, inscribed by the index entry "Norman Mailer":
Hi! Norm! Knew you'd look here first!
Long lists of facts are boring as all lists from shopping to check inevitably are, hence some form of prose must be used. In this reader's eyes Sutherland's uncalled for political put downs and unfunny asides in each chapter detracts attention from the little curiosities he is imparting. When William Thackeray said The Virginians was the worst novel he's ever written, a friend retorted "the worst novel anyone wrote" Sutherland couldn't resist a witticism of his own. With friends like that, who needs critics?
Of course there are strange vignettes that will amuse and inform, however, most of this book summarises well known facts that book lovers already know. Either that wallpaper goes or I do. The Hemingway solution. John Ruskin's alleged fear of...we'll just call it hair. Too many "uncuriosities" for me.
This curio little book fails to deliver which is sad as it could have been a marvel. Instead it's another one for the QI generation lovers of scrap paper. The funniest thing in this book and I'm not being sarcastic is before the index pages in the sparse Some Indical Curiosities sections, there is the clever-
Best indical jest: William F. Buckley, in the complimentary copy of his latest book, inscribed by the index entry "Norman Mailer":
Hi! Norm! Knew you'd look here first!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
If you love Victorian and 20th Century literature
1 Jan 2010
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
you will certainly enjoy this book. Sutherland, who is an English professor at University College London, has made a career of writing about oddities and conundrums in Victorian literature. This book is different in that it provides light-hearted, short articles about a wide range of literary topics such as Proust's asthma, Thomas Carlyle's wedding night, and the odd circumstances of Thomas Hardy's burial. He also provides entertaining lists, such as the most difficult literary works to read (Finnegans Wake is mentioned), books with canine first-person narrators, famous misquotes, youngest and oldest novelists, and books, according to a 2007 survey, least likely to be finished by readers. (War and Peace is included.) Sutherland wears his erudition lightly and is very funny.
Unlike the other reviewer who pronounced Sutherland pompous and arrogant, I found this book is so witty and enjoyable that I actually read part of it at the beach.
Unlike the other reviewer who pronounced Sutherland pompous and arrogant, I found this book is so witty and enjoyable that I actually read part of it at the beach.
15 of 20 people found the following review helpful
A Great Concept, But ...
24 Jun 2009
Format:Hardcover
Curiosities of Literature is a collection of short musings on literary miscellany, including such topics as "The First Typewriter-Writer," "The Worst Novelist Ever," and "Most Misquoted." I like to read about books, so I was looking forward to this one. Unfortunately, I found Sutherland's prose, loaded with self-indulgent complexity, to be almost incomprehensible.
Here's an example from "The Ultra-Literary Biscuit":
"Paterson Arran's `Brontė' shortbread (so called for entirely inscrutable reasons) is reported to be the top-selling brand among MPs at Westminster' Portcullis House. Cheering news for the Scottish Nationalists (the maker Paterson Arran is as Caledonian as their product). The biscuit that takes the literary biscuit, so to speak, is Proust's madeleine, the redolent taste of which inspires the long ruminations of Remembrance of Things Past."
Another example from "Adjectivals":
"The epithets `Brontean' and Thackerayan' are common in critical and general discourse. I frequently use them myself and very useful they are. But, curiously, some authors' lives, lifestyles, reputations, and literary works distil conveniently into adjectivality, and others inconveniently resist conversion. Peter Conradi, for example, gets through 500 pages of his authorized life of the novelist without once using `Murdochian'. Having read those pages, however, one has a precise idea of what the uncouth term would mean, if anyone, less stylistically scrupulous than Professor Conradi, cared to invent it."
Sutherland's witty pomposity will either entertain you or drive you mad. Unfortunately, I found myself in the latter category. Consider which camp you belong to before reading this one.
Here's an example from "The Ultra-Literary Biscuit":
"Paterson Arran's `Brontė' shortbread (so called for entirely inscrutable reasons) is reported to be the top-selling brand among MPs at Westminster' Portcullis House. Cheering news for the Scottish Nationalists (the maker Paterson Arran is as Caledonian as their product). The biscuit that takes the literary biscuit, so to speak, is Proust's madeleine, the redolent taste of which inspires the long ruminations of Remembrance of Things Past."
Another example from "Adjectivals":
"The epithets `Brontean' and Thackerayan' are common in critical and general discourse. I frequently use them myself and very useful they are. But, curiously, some authors' lives, lifestyles, reputations, and literary works distil conveniently into adjectivality, and others inconveniently resist conversion. Peter Conradi, for example, gets through 500 pages of his authorized life of the novelist without once using `Murdochian'. Having read those pages, however, one has a precise idea of what the uncouth term would mean, if anyone, less stylistically scrupulous than Professor Conradi, cared to invent it."
Sutherland's witty pomposity will either entertain you or drive you mad. Unfortunately, I found myself in the latter category. Consider which camp you belong to before reading this one.
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