Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: In the Blink of an Eye: A cultural history of spectacles
Author: SABIN STEFANA
Format: HARDCOVER
Publication date: 01/10/2021
Imprint: REAKTION
Price: $35.00
Publishing status: Active
This book examines those who wore glasses through history, art and literature, from the green emerald through which Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights to Benjamin Franklin s homemade bifocals, and from Marilyn Monroe s cat-eye glasses to Emma Bovary and Harry Potter.
Spectacles are objects that seem commonplace, but this book shows that because they fundamentally changed people s lives, glasses were the wellspring of a quiet social, cultural and economic revolution. Indeed, one can argue that modernity itself began with the paradigm shift that transformed poor eyesight from a severely limiting disease, treated with pomades and tinctures, into a minor impairment that can be remedied with mechanisms constructed from lenses and wire.
ISBN: 9781789144635
Dimension: 216mm X 138mm