Interpreting Charles Lamb’s ‘neat-bound books’
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Date
2019
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Adam Mickiewicz University
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Abstract
In this paper we consider a much-quoted phrase published by the essayist Charles Lamb (1775–1834) in the London Magazine in 1822 about a desirable quality in books: that they should be ‘strong-backed and neat-bound’. We identify meanings of modifier neat as evidenced by different communities of practice in early nineteenth-century newspapers, and in particular we present meanings of neat as used in certain Quaker writings known to have been read with approval by Lamb. By this method we assemble a series of nuanced meanings that the phrase neat-bound would have conveyed to contemporary readers – specifically, the readership of the London Magazine.
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Keywords
collocates, communities of practice, social networks, leather-workers, accountants, Quakers
Citation
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 54 (2019), pp. 157-177