The Oxford Book of Money
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:16th Feb '95
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
When Paul Dombey asks `what's money?' in Charles Dickens's novel, his father is hard put to find an answer. The Oxford Book of Money sets out to explore the question with the help of writers, poets, artists, philosophers, economists, financiers and politicians, and to determine not only what it is, but more importantly, what it can do. More than just `gold, and silver, and copper', more, even, than banknotes (or cowrie shells or cocoa beans), money represents power and status, the lack of it misery and ignominy. True to the decimal system, the ten sections that make up this anthology look at the rich and the poor and the countless ways in which money can be made and lost. From ancient Greece to modern America trade, speculation, inheritance, debt, and ruin have been the themes of literature and the sources of philosophical and psychological conjecture on money, happiness, and evil. And the hardest question of all reveals a centuries-old ambivalence: how much is it worth? Some things are beyond value, but we all work for hire. Money is a subject that few writers have ignored: Dante, Milton, Nietzche, Baudelaire, Beckett, Propertius, Whitman, Wolfe and Eco - there is an inexhaustible wealth of material that is here tapped to the full. Kevin Jackson has compiled a gem of an anthology on the richest topic of them all.
'well-edited volume ... The excerpts he has chosen are impressively wide-ranging and are constantly stimulating.' Frank McLynn, Literary Review, February 1995
'Kevin Jackson's entertaining and assiduously compiled hoard of extracts reminds us just how all-pervading is money's influence.' Anthony Quinn, Sunday Times
'It is a rich harvest, for nothing, except sexual love, has prompted such an outpouring of words.' Robert Skidelsky, London Evening Standard
'Collected thoughts of the great and the good on a subject most of us have frequent cause to reflect upon. As thorough and authoritative as the title would lead you to expect.' Arena
'I enjoyed this book. Mr Jackson is no blockhead.' Martin Wolf, Financial Times
'deftly and diligently edited by Kevin Jackson, a very modern anthologist well aware of the possibilities of the segue and the cross-fade.' David Kynaston, Sunday Telegraph
'Kevin Jackson has spent time collecting a mint of ideas from some great and not so great thinkers.' The Independent on Sunday
'absorbing and entertaining anthology ...The book is handsomely produced and, to use what must surely be the proper criterion in the circumstances, it represents, at about 1.5p per entry, very good value.' Kit McMahon, The Observer
'a heroic labour which I cannot praise too highly' London Review of Books
'an entertaining round-up of writing on the filthy stuff' Robert Yates, The Guardian
'his research led to the discovery of considrable literary riches ... The book is a well organised assembly of passages, poems, pictures and imagery about money by some of the greatest writers with something to say about money.' NBWilf Altman, The European
'full of good quotes and writings on money' Daily Express
The Oxford Book of Money fairly swings with novelists and poets, wits and politicians, economists and philosophers, all brilliantly animated by their common theme. * Lucy Naylor, Country Living, May 1995 *
While it could well be of great interest to businessmen, lots of other people could also find it absolutely fascinating ... this is an anthology of writings about money ... The editor is to be congratulated on the compilation and arrangement of hundreds of quotations ... It must have been a prodigious task, involving a vast amount of reading and research. The result was well worth the effort, and has provided readers with a positive feast of financial fare. * Reference Reviews *
Staggeringly eclectic, endlessly informative ... an exhilarating vapour of resentment and cupidity steams off every page. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *
Sublime, brainy and illuminating anthology on a subject dear to absolutely everyone's hearts. The ideal stocking-filler for the greed-head of your choice. * Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian *
ISBN: 9780192142009
Dimensions: 242mm x 163mm x 34mm
Weight: 917g
496 pages