Guillaume de Lorris (fl. 1230) and Jean de Meun (fl. 1275). Le Rommant de la Rose. Paris: Michel Le Noir, 1515.
Rare Book Collection. alcPQ1527.A1 1515
13th century poem on courtly love about a man who dreams that he has fallen in love with a rose. In the end the man plucks the rose using deceit.
Richard Brathwait (1588-1673). The English Gentleman. London: Printed John Dawson, 1641.
Rare Book Collection. PR2214.B3E6 1641
These types of guidebooks to proper behavior have a long history and are still very much around today in the form of Emily Post and other etiquette manuals. They are a wonderful view into an idealized world of the past, but they must always be read with a critical eye: just as no one follows all of Emily Post's rules, no one probably followed all of this advice.
Etheridge, George. The Man of Mode; or, Sir Fopling Flutter. London: T. Warren, H. Herringman, 1693.
Austrian PR3619.P6I6 1697
Restoration-era comedy featuring Sir Fopling who, as the name suggests, is the comic fop character. This dandified character was common in literature of this time, and is often contrasted with the rake, a dangerous seducer. The fop was a man seen as too concerned with his dress and effeminate in manner.
Philip Ayres (1663-1712). Emblems of Love: In Four Languages, Dedicated to the Ladys. London: R. Bently 1683.
Rare Book Collection. N7740.A92
Emblem books are a form of text not altogether familiar to us today. An emblem book represents a particular kind of reading. Unlike today, the eye is not intended to move rapidly from page to page. The emblem is meant to arrest the sense, to lead into the text, to the richness of its associations. An emblem is something like a riddle, a "hieroglyph" in the Renaissance vocabulary -- what many readers considered to be a form of natural language.
Monfort Allen. The Glory of Woman, or Love, Marriage, and Maternity. 1896
RG121.A44 1896
Typical of Victorian "cult of womanhood" and guides to young women; perhaps atypical in its frank presentation of female sexuality and anatomy.
Myrtle Reed. The Spinster Book, New York: GP Putnam,1901.
HQ801.R320
An entertaining read, musing on the philosophy of love, the lost art of courtship, and the natural history of proposals.
S.S. Hall. Bliss of Marriage; or, how to get a rich wife.
PS1799.H45B6 1858
Humorous advice on love, marriage and connubial bliss.
Frank Albertson. The Four-Footed Lovers. Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1881
Encyclopedia Britannica Collection of Children's Literature. PZ265.A33F78 1881
A children's book devoted to animal love. A great resource for looking at how Victorians saw childhood and love and how to educate the young about love.
Rev. Frederick Langbridge (1849-1922). Love-Knots and Bridal-Bands: Poems and Rhymes of Wooing and Wedding, and Valentine Verses. London: Raphael Tuck and Sons, 1883.
Rare Book Collection. PN6110.L6L3 1883
This is an excellent example of chromolithography. "One of the great appeals of chromolithography was that it allowed for the inexpensive production of thousands of colored prints, bringing bright and attractive images within the reach of the masses. But chromolithography was much more than this. Through chromolithography, historical events were graphically depicted, American views were spread far and wide, and all aspects of American life were vividly documented. At the same time, many artists used the process to create prints that very closely followed their artistic vision, and many chromolithographs, which were produced using heavy oil-based inks, closely duplicated the appearance of actual oil paintings."
Sappho, trans. Henry Wharton. London: Lane, 1895. PA4408.A2 1895
An important Victorian translation of Sappho; very influential on the work of Michael Field, also featured in this display.
Field, Michael. The Race of Leaves. London: Hacon & Ricketts, 1901. PR4699.F55R2 1901
"Michael Field" was the pen name of Katherine Harris Bradley and Edith Emma Cooper, two Victorian women who wrote both poetry and plays together. They felt that just as they were inseparably joined in life, so too their written contributions were completely melded, hence the single nom de plum for the jointly-written works. This particular edition of Race of Leaves was designed and printed by Charles Ricketts, who operate the Vale Press with his life-partner, Charles Shannon.
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. New York, C. Gaige, 1928. |
PR6045.O68O7 1928b
Dedicated to Vita Sackville-West, with whom Woolf had an affair, the novel can be read as a kind of valentine to Sackwille-West. Woolf's son, Nigel Nicolson, has described the work as a "charming love letter." Orlando was first published by the Hogarth Press, the press owned and operated by Woolf and her husband, Leonard. Special Collections owns both the Hogarth Press edition and the one displayed here, which is signed by Woolf herself.
Helena Jameson Stevens. Scrapbook, 1914-1915. |
Hyde Park Historical Society Paper
Helena Jameson Stevens was a student in the Lab School and at the University of Chicago. Here are two valentines she received and kept in her scrapbook. SSCC stands for South Shore Country Club.
Robert Redfield (1897-1958) to Margaret Park Redfield (1898-1977), "A Want-ad Valentine," typescript, n.d. Margaret Park Redfield Papers
Robert Redfield, an Anthropologist at the University of Chicago, was a devoted family man and wrote impassioned letters back home. Here is a valentine he sent his wife when he was conducting field work in Mexico.
Peter Abelarde. Letters of Abelard and Heloise: to which is prefix'd a particular account of their lives, amours and misfortunes. London: F. Watts, 1718.
PA8201.A4 1718
These spectacularly doomed lovers met while Abelard was Heloise's tutor, living at her uncle's house. They fell in love, she became pregnant, and together they had a son named Astrolabe. Abelard asked Heloise to marry him and she consented and they married in secret. An unfortunate visit to a convent led to misinterpretation: Heloise's family believed Abelard had seduced and abandoned her. Heloise's uncle castrated Abelard, who then became a monk. Heloise took the veil herself and remained at the convent; their child was raised by Abelard's sister.
Charles Lamb. Satan in Search of a Wife (1831) PR4892.S2 1831
Humorous account of Satan's love life. Lamb had aspirations to become a poet, but his preference for sentimental verse proved limiting. He had greater success in writing for children.
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994). Love is a Dog from Hell: Poems, 1974-1977. Santa Barbara: Black Sparrow Press, 1977.
Rare Book Collection
Bukowski is probably best known in popular culture as the inspiration for the movie Barfly; a post-hippy poet from California who writes extensively on the less seemly side of life.
Anne Boleyn to Henry VIII. London, R. Dodsley, 1743. f PR3765.W4A7 1743
An eighteenth-century reprinting of Anne's last letter to the King, before he had her executed. A cautionary tale...
