The List

The Uses and Pleasures of Cataloguing

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism
Cover of the book The List by Dr. Robert E. Belknap, Yale University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Dr. Robert E. Belknap ISBN: 9780300127195
Publisher: Yale University Press Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press Language: English
Author: Dr. Robert E. Belknap
ISBN: 9780300127195
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication: October 1, 2008
Imprint: Yale University Press
Language: English

“I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in Walden. In creating this list, and many others that appear in his writings, Thoreau was working within a little-recognized yet ancient literary tradition: the practice of listing or cataloguing. This beautifully written book is the first to examine literary lists and the remarkably wide range of ways writers use them.
Robert Belknap first examines lists through the centuries-from Sumerian account tablets and Homer’s catalogue of ships to Tom Sawyer’s earnings from his fence-painting scheme-then focuses on lists in the works of four American Renaissance authors: Emerson, Whitman, Melville, and Thoreau. Lists serve a variety of functions in Emerson’s essays, Whitman’s poems, Melville’s novels, and Thoreau’s memoirs, and Belknap discusses their surprising variety of pattern, intention, scope, art, and even philosophy. In addition to guiding the reader through the list’s many uses, this book explores the pleasures that lists offer.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

“I am no more lonely than the Mill Brook, or a weathercock, or the north star, or the south wind, or an April shower, or a January thaw, or the first spider in a new house,” wrote Henry David Thoreau in Walden. In creating this list, and many others that appear in his writings, Thoreau was working within a little-recognized yet ancient literary tradition: the practice of listing or cataloguing. This beautifully written book is the first to examine literary lists and the remarkably wide range of ways writers use them.
Robert Belknap first examines lists through the centuries-from Sumerian account tablets and Homer’s catalogue of ships to Tom Sawyer’s earnings from his fence-painting scheme-then focuses on lists in the works of four American Renaissance authors: Emerson, Whitman, Melville, and Thoreau. Lists serve a variety of functions in Emerson’s essays, Whitman’s poems, Melville’s novels, and Thoreau’s memoirs, and Belknap discusses their surprising variety of pattern, intention, scope, art, and even philosophy. In addition to guiding the reader through the list’s many uses, this book explores the pleasures that lists offer.

More books from Yale University Press

Cover of the book The Spanish Resurgence, 1713-1748 by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book The Most Musical Nation: Jews and Culture in the Late Russian Empire by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book The Glatstein Chronicles by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book Anna and Tranquillo by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book Forgotten Continent by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book The Book in the Renaissance by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book American Colonial History by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book The Arts and the Creation of Mind by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book The Virtual Weapon and International Order by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book The Contender by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book Adam Smith's Pluralism by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book On Evil by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book Music and Sentiment by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book Engineering Communism by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
Cover of the book Women and Men on the Overland Trail by Dr. Robert E. Belknap
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy