The Book of Wonderful Characters: Memoirs and Anecdotes of Remarkable and Eccentric Persons in All Ages and Countries

Henry Wilson, James Caulfield

ISBN 10: 1108044409 / ISBN 13: 9781108044400

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2012

About this Item

1st edition. 538 pages. In Stock. Bookseller Inventory # __1108044409

Bibliographic Details

Title: The Book of Wonderful Characters: Memoirs ...

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Publication Date: 2012

Binding: Paperback

Book Condition: Brand New

About this title

Synopsis:

Printmaker James Caulfield (1764–1826) spent much of his career publishing illustrated books about 'remarkable persons'. He began his first series around 1788 and continued it sporadically from 1790 to 1795, with books on a similar theme continuing to appear in the first decades of the nineteenth century. More than forty years after his death, this collection of biographies (produced in collaboration with Henry Wilson (fl. 1820–30)) was republished in 1869. The edition's introduction explains that the renewed interest in these characters comes from the fact that 'we have nearly lost all, and are daily losing what little remains of, our individuality'. The vignettes, accompanied by engravings of each individual, describe a wide-ranging group - from the man who died aged 152 to a 'remarkable glutton' to a woman who lived on the smell of flowers - their only common factor being that they were in some way 'wonderful'.

Book Description:

Printmaker James Caulfield (1764–1826) spent much of his career publishing books about 'remarkable persons'. This collection, done in collaboration with Henry Wilson (fl. 1820–3), was reprinted in 1869. It includes vignettes describing a wide-ranging and eccentric cast of characters and is accompanied by engravings of each person.