{"product_id":"brothers-of-the-quill-norma-clarke-9780674736573","title":"Brothers of the Quill: Oliver Goldsmith in Grub Street","description":"\u003cp\u003eOliver Goldsmith arrived in England in 1756 a penniless Irishman. He toiled for years in the anonymity of Grub Street--already a synonym for impoverished hack writers--before he became one of literary London's most celebrated authors. Norma Clarke tells the extraordinary story of this destitute scribbler turned gentleman of letters as it unfolds in the early days of commercial publishing, when writers' livelihoods came to depend on the reading public, not aristocratic patrons. Clarke examines a network of writers radiating outward from Goldsmith: the famous and celebrated authors of Dr. Johnson's \"Club\" and those far less fortunate \"brothers of the quill\" trapped in Grub Street. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eClarke emphasizes Goldsmith's sense of himself as an Irishman, showing that many of his early literary acquaintances were Irish 駑igr駸: Samuel Derrick, John Pilkington, Paul Hiffernan, and Edward Purdon. These writers tutored Goldsmith in the ways of Grub Street, and their influence on his development has not previously been explored. Also Irish was the patron he acquired after 1764, Robert Nugent, Lord Clare. Clarke places Goldsmith in the tradition of Anglo-Irish satirists beginning with Jonathan Swift. He transmuted troubling truths about the British Empire into forms of fable and nostalgia whose undertow of Irish indignation remains perceptible, if just barely, beneath an equanimous English surface. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTo read \u003ci\u003eBrothers of the Quill\u003c\/i\u003e is to be taken by the hand into the darker corners of eighteenth-century Grub Street, and to laugh and cry at the absurdities of the writing life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Norma Clarke\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0674736575\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780674736573\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Harvard University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/18\/2016\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.40h x 5.80w x 1.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2016","brand":"Norma Clarke","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":43946913759487,"sku":"9780674736573","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_209f7769-a03b-4a4e-a187-8e6d140e8bdf.jpg?v=1681515727","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/brothers-of-the-quill-norma-clarke-9780674736573","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}