The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes
by Chuck Zerby
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Description
Footnotes have not had it easy. Their dominance of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century literature and scholarship was both hard-won -- following many years of struggle -- and doomed, as it led to belittlement in the twentieth century. In The Devil's Details, Chuck Zerby playfully explores footnotes' long and illustrious history and makes a clarion call to save them from the new world of the Internet and hypertext. In a story that boasts a marvelous plot and a rogues' gallery of players, show more Zerby examines traditional footnotes and their less-buttoned-down incarnations, as when used by pornographers. Yes, The Devil's Details is full of surprises: Zerby hunts down the first bona fide fully functioning footnote; unearths a multivolume history of Northumberland County, England, that uses one volume for a single footnote; and uncovers a murder plot. He even explains why footnotes are like blind dates. Carefully researched and highly opinionated, The Devil's Details affirms that delight in reading can come from unexpected places. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This is a charming and extremely witty consideration of what footnotes mean. While Zerby seems to have done little original research (much of his information on footnotes per se comes from one source), he presents the material in such a wry and yet informative manner that one is totally swept up. Surprising digressions spill out from the topic at hand; scholarship is teased; the book publishing business analyzed and chided; and always, footnotes are defended as if the future depended on them. The tone often veers just to the edge of seriousness and then skitters back into facitiousness (there is more than a little of Robert Benchley's sensibility here). All in all, a delightful read.!
Mildly interesting, opinionated
Witty and hysterical. An excellent treatment.
A fun read for a historian, who deals with more footnotes than anybody else.
Bibliographical citations > History
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Author Information
1 Work 289 Members
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Devil's Details: A History of Footnotes
- Original publication date
- 2001
- Dedication
- In memory of Angela Carmela Mascolo
- First words
- The need for an adequate* book on footnotes is obvious.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 808.027 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism Composition Rhetoric and anthologies Authorship techniques, plagiarism, editorial techniques Editing and scholarly writing
- LCC
- PN171 .F56 .Z47 — Language and Literature Literature (General) Literature (General) Authorship
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 289
- Popularity
- 110,941
- Reviews
- 6
- Rating
- (3.15)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 3
