Buy used:

$25.55

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Tuesday, May 28 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35. Order within 11 hrs 46 mins

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by GoodBookCollective

Fulfilled by Amazon

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Other sellers on Amazon

Used (12) from $10.02 & FREE Shipping

Follow the author

Dame Edith Sitwell

+ Follow

More books from this author

English Eccentrics a Gallery of Weird Paperback – January 1, 1971

by Edith Sitwell (Author)

4.3 40 ratings

See all formats and editions

English Eccentrics a Gallery of Weird [paperback] Sitwell, Edith [Jul 29, 1971]

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; Trade Paperback Edition (January 1, 1971)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0140032738
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0140032734
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.1 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.04 x 0.63 x 7.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,617,831 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #158,554 in Biographies (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.3 40 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Dame Edith Sitwell

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5

40 global ratings

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Alessandro Giannelli-Viscardi

Interesting book

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2023

Verified Purchase

Very interesting book

Reviewed in the United States on May 17, 2003

Who but Dame Edith Sitwell could produce such a wonderful send-up of the British, poking fun by speaking the truth as she saw it, in The English Eccentrics. Eccentricity was often simply the Ordinary carried to a high degree of pictorial perfection, Sitwell claims, and thus we get a gifted glimpse of the usually-overlooked obvious.
Of course, there is so much material to work with, it is a wonder the book isn't multi-volumed! Originally published in 1933, it retains much of its vitality and levity despite being two generations (at least) behind the times. Sitwell caught the character of the English Eccentric at a time just before the wholesale decline of Empire, and thus the character portrayed here is a 'standard' one.
'Eccentricity exists particularly in the English, and partly, I think, because of that peculiar and satisfactory knowledge of infallibility that is the hallmark and birthright of the British nation.'
In the relating of small tales and glimpses of life, Sitwell takes us through a history of language usage and abusage, cultural niceties gone awry, personal proclivities taken to extremes, historical remembrances remembered a bit incorrectly, all the while maintaining a strong British 'we know just what we're doing, thank you, and we're doing it quite correctly' attitude.
We find hermits, both ancient and ornamental (the distinction between the two of course being a relative flash that one would think inimical to the hermit-age); quacks and alchemists, some members of the sporting set (we learn of one who, in an attempt to scare the hiccups out of himself, set fire to his nightshirt--of course he was still in it--and was satisfied despite the burns that his hiccups had been vanquished), various other sorts and sets in the land.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson to be learned from this book would the Of the Benefits of Posthumous Fame. Using Milton as the first example, Sitwell proceeds to demonstrate just how this posthumous fame (for the man who sold Paradise Lost for the meagre sum of £20) can be a great boon to all concerned, particularly those who have the foresight to collect locks of hair or write poetry about rummaging through the bone-remains of the dead poet. Of course, there followed in short order a detailed (yet anonymous) description of why the poet could not have actually handled the bones of the poet, not least of which being that as the grave said 1653, and Milton was not in fact buried until 1674, et cetera; thus begins an active correspondence of attempting to prove or disprove in fashion why Milton was not bodily handled.
This is a thoroughly English treatment; like her eccentrics, Sitwell's style of writing is likewise gloriously eccentric. Much will be missed on the first reading, and again the second; by the third reading (should you be so eccentric as to persevere through to such) you will either be so charmed by the writing that you will carry this book around, quoting passages that need context to be understood (and thus be ordained into a minor order of eccentricity yourself) or, you will give the book away to the most tedious of your friends, hoping that the friend will take the hint.
The choice is yours.

28 people found this helpful

Helpful

Ian Forry

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2017

fun book

Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2022

Verified Purchase

...at least no highlighter I guess

Helpful

sally tarbox

"Eccentricity exists particularly in the English"

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2014

A variable collection of characters, from the true eccentrics to those who would hardly seem to qualify.
The former include such individuals as the 'amphibious' lord Rokeby ; the 'not entirely pleasing' Celestina Collins, who shared her bed with thirty fowls; Squire Mytton, who frightened his hiccups away by setting his nightshirt on fire...

I was entertained by the account of Mr Coates, a Shakespearean actor who never quite cut the mustard: 'Mr Coates appeared at The Theatre Royal, Richmond...and again no attempt was made upon his life. indeed, the only lives that were in danger were those of certain unfeeling young gentlemen, who, in the scene where the hero poisons himself, were seized with such immoderate paroxysms of laughter that a doctor who was present became alarmed at their condition, and ordered them to be carried into the open air, where they received medical attention.'

Edith Sitwell's sarcastic tone adds to the narrative: 'Others of Miss Martineau's neighbours were hardly respectable, but like a comfortable Christian woman Miss Martineau said no more about them than would destroy their reputation for respectability and enhance her own.' I found her writing extremely hard to get into, especially on the first page, but became accustomed to it.

The last 60 pages or so I found less interesting: a lengthy investigation into people exhuming the (reported) grave of Milton, and removing parts of the body to sell; a description of the Carlyles. Neither seemed really relevant to the theme of the book.
In conclusion then, interesting in parts.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Hanslune

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United States on March 2, 2015

Verified Purchase

Nothing better than nuts

6 people found this helpful

Helpful