Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. A 'department of literature': advertising in the Romantic period; 2. 'Humbug and co.': satirical engagements with advertising 1770–1840; 3. 'We keeps a poet': shoe blacking and the commercial aesthetic; 4. 'Publicity to a lottery is certainly necessary': Thomas Bish and the culture of gambling; 5. 'Barber or perfumer': incomparable oils and crinicultural satire; 6. 'The poetry of hair-cutting': J. R. D. Huggins, the emperor of barbers; Conclusion: 'thoughts on puffs, patrons and other matters': commodifying the book; Bibliography.

Promotional Information

An engaging study of advertising and its interactions with literature, particularly satire and parody.

Reviews

"...[an] original, lucid, richly illustrated account...Highly recommended."
-J.T. Lynch, Rutgers University, Choice

"...an extremely valuable contribution to our understanding of the late Georgian era-out of which something called the Romantic period continues to be constructed." --Steven Jones, Loyola University Chicago: The Wordsworth Circle

"Strachan's book makes an important contribution to the growing scholarship on what we might call popular Romanticism...Its great success resides in providing us a lexicon not just for talking about Romantic period advertising, but for reading it as an art in its own right and as a prevalent form of engagement with its socio-cultural context."
erudit.org W. Michael Johnstone, University of Toronto

"Drawing on a wealth of new research, Strachan shows brilliantly how advertising and art (especially satirical art) were in dialogue with each other in this period, in ways that we are still only beginning to appreciate."
-Tom Mole,McGill University