(no subject)
May. 30th, 2012 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnny9fingersMy short-sightedness has been interfering with my reading habits for a small time now. Nevertheless, between infant heir, SWMBO, etc., I have found the odd moment or two. However, my myopia (a sign of age, no doubt) particularly impacts upon my enjoyment of this book:
The prints, from Gilray, Rowlandson, Cruickshank et al are brilliant examples of what we now consider "political cartoons", and Gatrell's commentary, presented with a sort of pastor-like oratorical didacticism, is illuminating and insightful: and sets a tone which, if not quite Olympian, nor even Augustan, still treats the subject of often bawdy levity with a gravitas wonderfully oxymoronic, as if trying to imbue it with dignity. And he makes sense doing so.
I'd give it an extravagant 9.25 out of 10. If you are at all interested in the history of political cartoons, this gives a selection from a time and place at the nascency of the artform.
The prints, from Gilray, Rowlandson, Cruickshank et al are brilliant examples of what we now consider "political cartoons", and Gatrell's commentary, presented with a sort of pastor-like oratorical didacticism, is illuminating and insightful: and sets a tone which, if not quite Olympian, nor even Augustan, still treats the subject of often bawdy levity with a gravitas wonderfully oxymoronic, as if trying to imbue it with dignity. And he makes sense doing so.
I'd give it an extravagant 9.25 out of 10. If you are at all interested in the history of political cartoons, this gives a selection from a time and place at the nascency of the artform.
