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xxii, 218 p. illus. 23 cm. ; LCCN: 56-44080 ; OCLC: 1204946 ; LC: CT9990; Dewey: 920.8 ; Contents: Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle.--Edmund Hickeringill.--William Jennens.--Scheming Jack Gainsborough.--Richard Rigby.--Edward Fitzgerald. ; blue cloth in pictorial dustjacket ; dustjacket clipped ; "The peculiarity of eccentricity is tat it is rarely peculiar; it is always based on logic, and the more eccentric the person the more logical he is. The true eccentric is consistent though his thoughts and actions may be unconventional; above all, he is an individualist, refusing to be levelled to the pattern of his fellows, intent on following his own consuming interest. Himself larger than life, he can happily disregard the amusement or the sneers of ordinary men. In this age of the great levelling, the eccentric is assumed to be mad, a fit subject for the psychiatrist, an oddity to be pitied, to be assisted, with all the benefactions of the Welfare state, to join the dull mediocrity of his fellows. Such an attitude to the singularity of the eccentric could not be more misplaced and James Turner's half-dozen oddities, who at one time or another lived their satisfying lives in his native East Anglia, each prove the point. They range from from Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle, whom crowds flocked to see whenever she came to London from the seclusion of Welbeck, to Gainesborough's brother, who spent his life inventing useless toys, and that absent-minded dreamer, Edward FitzGerald, who achieved undying fame with his translation of the Rubaiyat." ; much foxing in places, else VG/VG. Seller Inventory # 006243
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