Sod off, readers
John Sutherland, 26 September 1991
Rude Words: A Discursive History of the London Library
by John Wells.
Macmillan, 240 pp., £17.50, September 1991,0 333 47519 4 Show More
by John Wells.
Macmillan, 240 pp., £17.50, September 1991,
Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English
by Geoffrey Hughes.
Blackwell, 283 pp., £16.95, August 1991,0 631 16593 2 Show More
by Geoffrey Hughes.
Blackwell, 283 pp., £16.95, August 1991,
“... 150th anniversary, the present guardians of the London Library have chosen an eminent comedian, John Wells, to write their celebratory history. The sage of Chelsea would not have been amused. But then, nothing did amuse him. He seems to have been immune to such essentially human feelings. Carlyle happened to be in the library in 1875 when Bryan ... ”