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The Order of Things
Image from the cover of "Schott's Original Miscellany" Email to friend
See an example of a page in Schott's Miscellany.
What can we find in common between the last words of Oscar Wilde, the complete list of knitting abbreviations, and the signs of the Chinese Zodiac? Nothing, except they can all be organized into a list. And that's just what Benjamin Schott did in his new book Schott's Original Miscellany.
From the causes of death for the various Burmese kings, to the complete guide to the Bronte siblings, Schott's book evokes an era of dimly-lit libraries and leather armchairs, when fields of knowledge were small enough for so-called Renaissance men to master them. It challenges our sense of natural categories by imposing order on the randomness of things, from an explanation of medical shorthand terms to the color of Miss America's hair.
