Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-220) and index.
Contents:
Introduction: Romantic bookishness -- Collecting the Ladies of Llangollen -- Thomas F. Dibdin's club for ornamental gentlemen -- The punk antiquarianism of Charles Lamb -- Harry Buxton Forman and Thomas J. Wise, a curious pair of bookmen.
Summary:
"How did the buying and collecting of books figure in the lives and works of the Romantics, those supposed apostles of spiritualized poetic genius? Why was book collecting controversial during the period, and what role has book collecting played in the history of queer phobia? The Queer Bookishness of Romanticism: Ornamental Community addresses such questions about the bookish dimension of Romanticism and its Victorian aftermath. The analysis focuses on the bookish proclivities of the Ladies of Llangollen, the "ornamental gentlemen" and bibliographer Thomas F. Dibdin, the essayist Charles Lamb, and the Victorian forgers Thomas J. Wise and Harry Buxton Forman. In the process, this book uncovers surprising connections between literature and sexuality, bookishness and queerness, and forgery and sexuality."--Back cover.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.