One of the few material possessions I inherited from my grandmother Goody is a book entitled The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Literature, first published in 1939 and reprinted in 1942.
I love this book for many reasons, among them: the perspective of the editors is extremely British-centric, much of the information is so antiquated as to verge on fiction, the writing of the entries is delightfully snobby, and the totality is a time-capsule of the English literary landscape eighty years ago, a landscape so unlike the literary landscape of today this book might be about life on another planet where they also happen to have Shakespeare, Dickens, and Jane Austen.
Here, for your enjoyment, are a handful of entries I especially enjoyed during my latest perusal of the goodly tome.
Southcott, Joanna (1750-1814), a religious fanatic. In 1792 she began to write doggerel prophecies and to claim supernatural gifts, and in time attracted a very large number of followers. She died of brain disease, leaving a sealed box with directions that it should be opened at a time of national crisis. It was opened in 1927 and was found to contain nothing of interest.
Macaulay, Rose, contemporary author among whose chief works are: Potterism (1920), Dangerous Ages (1921), Told By an Idiot (1923) Orphan Island (1924), all novels; also two volumes of verse. She is notable for a deft and epigrammatic style and for her wide reading.
Burnell the Ass, the hero of the Speculum Stultorum of Wireker, Burnell, an ass who wishes to acquire a larger tail, goes to Salerno and to Paris to study, meets with various adventures, and finally loses his tail altogether.
Genius, in classical pagan belief, the tutelary god or attendant spirit allotted to every person at his birth, to govern his fortunes and determine his character; also the spirit similarly connected with a place.
Hesperia, the western land for the Greek poets was Italy. The Roman poets similarly gave the name to Spain.
Lover, Samuel (1797-1868), Irish novelist and song-writer, is remembered for his ballad, and the novel developed out of it, Rory O’More (1836), which deals with the tragic events in Ireland in 1798 and also for his novel Handy Andy in which he developed the whimsical aspects of Irish character.
Wilcox, MRS. ELLA WHEELER (née Wheeler) (1855-1919), American poet and journalist, described as the most popular poet of either sex and of any age, read by thousands who never open Shakespeare. She began to publish poems at the age of seven, and her last volume Poems of Affection was published posthumously in 1920. Her Collected Poems were published in 1921.
fin
The Way Things Go from Todd’s album Lounge Act In Heaven
