Victorian Glassworlds, Glass Culture and the Imagination 1830-1880

摘要

A synopsis of a review by Durrell Clive Manison Mr Manison found that the use of rather convoluted language and unnoticed spelling errors, made the reading of this conceptually intriguing book an issue which detracted from the main thrust of the arguments. The introductory section, entitled The Poetics of Transparency', introduces the reader to seven theses, although themes would have been perhaps more appropriate. The titles of the first two theses are 'Breath' and 'Sand'. We are told that 'most glass in the nineteenth century was blown by human breath. It was partly 'petrified' breath and partly frozen liquid, a breakable liquid'. The author describes sand as the 'useless debris of our globe', an insight into the breadth of the author's imagination.