Money: Lure, Lore, and Literature

(Hardback)

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Joining two seemingly irreconcilable opposites, money and art, this edited collection analyzes the treatment of money in various forms of literature. The volume begins with chapters analyzing money in terms of language and culture, and then turns to money in history, showing how money has been influenced by, and has changed, history. Using the theories developed in the first two sections, the chapters that follow consider the literatures of Russia and America, French literature, and English literature. In Part I, contributors look at such themes as money in Christian culture and the pervasive influence of money on language. Part II considers Queen Elizabeth I's use of money for propaganda, money shortages in 18th-century France, and banking in 19th-century America. The following sections provide the major focus of the work--the theme of money in literature. American and Russian literature are considered in essays on the work of Alexander Pushkin, Henry James, and William Carlos Williams. Part III, on French literature, looks at the work of Moliere, Flaubert, Balzac, Zola, and Andre Gide. The final, long section analyzes money's appearance in English literature, including the work of Shakespeare, George Herbert, Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Charles Dickens, and Bram Stoker.

Reviews

The essays collected here address the relationship between money and the arts, exploring the analogies between the circulation of words and money in society and culture. Scholars working on most aspects of the topic "money and literature" will find some relevant essays here.-Choice
"The essays collected here address the relationship between money and the arts, exploring the analogies between the circulation of words and money in society and culture. Scholars working on most aspects of the topic "money and literature" will find some relevant essays here."-Choice

Author Bio

JOHN LOUIS DiGAETANI is Associate Professor of English at Hofstra University. He is the author or editor of many books, including most recently Opera and the Golden West (1994), A Search for Postmodern Theater: Interviews with Contemporary Playwrights (Greenwood, 1992), and A Companion to Pirandello Studies (Greenwood, 1991).