Samuel Johnson's Menagerie: The Beastly Lives of Exotic Quadrupeds in the Eighteenth Century - Brossura

Julia Allen

Brossura

ISBN 10: 1852970731 ISBN 13: 9781852970734

Casa editrice: Archival Facsimiles Ltd, 2002

Riassunto

For many people Samuel Johnson personifies the eighteenth century. From humble beginnings he talked and wrote his way to eminence, gathering about him friends and acquaintances, a list of whom reads like a contemporary Who s Who. Samuel Johnson s Menagerie grew out of the entries on exotic quadrupeds in Johnson s Dictionary of the English Language. It is much more than an account of some of the famous wild beasts that provided a spectacle for gaping Londoners. It also looks at what was known or believed about them; at their medicinal and culinary uses; at their place in Creation; at their relationship to man, and much more besides. Johnson s entries on the exotic quadrupeds are printed in their entirety in the first section. Parts II and III look behind the definitions and Part IV includes eye-witness accounts of some of the famous wild creatures that provided such a spectacle for gaping Londoners. Exploration and commerce had put London at the centre of a thriving trade in exotic animals but all too often the captive beasts were housed in cramped and unsuitable conditions, fed unsuitable food and subject to 'unprovoked sallies of impertinent cruelty'. However, a few humane keepers formed 'sincere mutual friendships' with their charges and by the end of the 18th century animal husbandry was good enough for lions to breed in the Royal menagerie.

Su questo libro

L'autore:

Julia Allen spent two years teaching grammar in a grammar school, six years cataloguing Cambridge libraries and had a stint as lexicographer on Longman's English Larousse.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Archival Facsimiles Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1852970731
• ISBN 13: 9781852970734
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero edizione: 1
• Numero di pagine: 192