Walking the streets of eighteenth-century London : John Gay's Trivia (1716) / edited by Clare Brant and Susan E. Whyman.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Brant, Clare, 1960-

Whyman, Susan E., 1937-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gay, John, 1685-1732. Trivia.

Gay, John.

City and town life.

History.

London (England)--In literature.

London (England).

City and town life--England--London--History--18th century.

London (England)--Social conditions--18th century.

England--London.

Physical Description:

x, 256 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Walking the streets of 18th-century London

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London will entertain and inform all who are interested in literature, history, and the city of London. This unique book invites the reader to walk along the dirty, crowded, and fascinating streets of eighteenth-century London in an unusual way. Nine leading experts from the fields of literature, history, classics, gender, biography, geography, and costume, offer different interpretations of John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of Londoni (1716). The poem--a lively, funny, and thought-provoking statement about urban life--accompanies the essays, in a new edition with comprehensive notes. The introduction paints a vibrant picture of London in 1716, depicting Gay's fascinating life and literary world, offering an invaluable guide to the poem. Together, these elements allow the heat, grime, and smells of the underbelly of eighteenth-century London come alive in new ways.

Contents:

The essays. Faces and crowds: biography in the city / Philip Carter

Sharing public spaces / Susan E. Whyman

Spatial stories: movement in the city and cultural geography / Alison Stenton

'All besides the rail, rang'd beggars lie': Trivia and the public poverty of early eighteenth-century London / Tim Hitchcock

'Nauceious and abominable'? Pollution, plague, and poetics in John Gay's trivia / Mark Jenner

Artless and artful: John Gay's Trivia / Clare Brant

The walker beset: gender in the early eighteenth-century city / Margaret R. Hunt

Street style: dress in John Gay's Trivia

Gay's Trivia: walking the streets of Rome / Susanna Morton Braund. The poem: Trivia: or the art of walking the streets of London.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [220]-249) and index.

ISBN:

9780199280490

0199280495

OCLC:

155715207