Public-domain ebook
Curiosities of Civilization
Language: en2,237 downloads on Project Gutenberg
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In: Essays, Letters & Speeches·History - Modern (1750+)·Sociology
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #40498.
About this book
Andrew Wynter’s Curiosities of Civilization gathers a series of mid‑nineteenth‑century essays originally published in the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews. The volume opens with a formal note explaining that, apart from a single 1860 piece on mortality in trades, the articles first appeared in the Quarterly Review over the preceding six years and have been updated where necessary. A detailed contents list follows, ranging from “Food and Its Adulterations” to “The Electric Telegraph,” each entry dated and accompanied by a brief description of its subject. After the list, Wynter sets out his aim: to trace the evolution of public advertisements as a mirror of national progress, using excerpts from early newspapers to illustrate how the small notices of merchants, runaway servants, and even lost negro‑boys reveal the habits, fashions and anxieties of successive generations.
The prose is unmistakably Victorian, combining scholarly annotation with a conversational, almost diary‑like tone. Wynter’s voice is erudite yet accessible, peppered with vivid anecdotes and a steady rhythm that reflects the period’s penchant for exhaustive detail. Readers who enjoy historical surveys, cultural anthropology, or the texture of 19th‑century periodical literature will find the work rewarding, especially those interested in how ordinary print, advertisements, notices, and pamphlets, can illuminate broader social currents.
The opening · free to read
TO THE READER.
The following Essays have been reprinted from the pages of the Quarterly and Edinburgh Reviews, with the kind permission of their proprietors. It may be necessary, however, to state that, with the exception of the paper on the "Mortality in Trades and Professions," which was published in the Edinburgh Review of January, 1860, the whole of them have appeared in the Quarterly Review during the last six years. The date of each essay is given in the list of contents; but, where necessary, corrections have been made, so as to bring each article up to the knowledge of the present day.
A. W.
COLEHERNE COURT, OLD BROMPTON. August, 1860.
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
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