Walking the Streets of Eighteenth-Century London will entertain and inform all who are interested in literature, history, and the city of London. This unique book invites the reader to walk along the dirty, crowded, and fascinating streets of eighteenth-century London in an unusual way. Nine leading experts from the fields of literature, history, classics, gender, biography, geography, and costume, offer different interpretations of John Gay's poem Trivia: or, the Art of Walking the Streets of London (1716). The poem - a lively, funny, and thought-provoking statement about urban life - accompanies the essays, in a new edition with comprehensive notes. The introduction paints a vibrant picture of London in 1716, depicting Gay's fascinating life and literary world, offering an invaluable guide to the poem. Together, these elements allow the heat, grime, and smells of the underbelly of eighteenth-century London come alive in new ways.
INTRODUCTION ; The Project ; London in 1716 ; John Gay's Life and Literary World ; A Guide to the Poem: Trivia: or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London ; The Essays: Connections, Differences, Disciplines ; THE ESSAYS ; 1. Faces and Crowds: Biography in the City ; 2. Sharing Public Spaces ; 3. Spatial Stories: Movement in the City and Cultural Geography ; 4. 'All besides the Rail, rang'd Beggars lie': Trivia and the Public Poverty of Early Eighteenth-Century London ; 5. "Nauceious and Abominable"? Pollution, Plague, and Poetics in John Gay's Trivia ; 6. Artless and Artful: John Gay's Trivia ; 7. The Walker Beset: Gender in the Early Eighteenth-Century City ; 8. Street Style: Dress in John Gay's Trivia ; 9. Gay's Trivia: Walking the Streets of Rome ; THE POEM ; Trivia: or, The Art of Walking the Streets of London ; POEM NOTES
