A01=Stefana Sabin
accessories
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art
Author_Stefana Sabin
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bifocals
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBTB
Category=NHTB
COP=United Kingdom
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
design
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eyeglasses
eyewear
fashion
Glass
glasses
History of reading
Language_English
literature
Optician
Optics
PA=Available
Price_€10 to €20
PS=Active
shades
softlaunch
style
sunglasses
vintage
Product details
- ISBN 9781789144635
- Dimensions: 120 x 197mm
- Publication Date: 12 Jul 2021
- Publisher: Reaktion Books
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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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.
Stefana Sabin has written for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, edited several anthologies of contemporary prose and published biographies of Andy Warhol and Gertrude Stein, among others. She lives in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
