"To borrow from one is plaigarism. To borrow from many is research."
This line kept popping into my head as I read this work on the history of plaigarism. They kept popping into my head, however, because my mind kept wandering. I doubt this is the author's fault, though. His examples are probably very engaging-to people who have read them. Most of the book, however, looks at literary pilfering-and only a few of the items his mentions were at all familiar, which slowed my reading down quite a bit.

Probably a good book for rhetoric and literature buffs, but otherwise could be avoided. ( )

Plagiarism

As with so many forms of fraud, the author notes that "Somehow we're never quite sure about plagiarism". It's bad, "Isn't it?"

Mallon chooses not to survey broadly the field, but provides extended research into a few useful examples: Beginning with Laurence Sterne and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the work of the aggressive plagiarist and Victorian bombadier writer, Charles Reade, to Jacob Epstein's use of Martin Amis for witty bits in his first novel, and finally the fierce battle over Falcon Crest.

Plagiarism's structures and ironies emerge, and Mallon makes the following generalizations of the phenom:
(1) Plagiarists are repeat offenders;
(2) We show a distaste for real inquiry which is tainted by small minded/pettiness; (3) Plagiarism is a crime of degree; and (4) It is a mystery where Writing comes from -- we don't know what makes it happen.[Preface xiii]