Nonfiction
Curiosities of Literature A Feast For Book Lovers, by John Sutherland, $22.95
What are some of the biggest blunders in literary history?
John Sutherland, a professor of modern English literature at University College London, knows: There is Shakespeare’s gaffe of endowing Bohemia with a coastline in “The Winter’s Tale” (a play also notable for its famous stage direction “Exit pursued by a bear”). In “The Antiquary,” Sir Walter Scott had the sun rise in the east.
Sutherland’s favorite example occurs in the speech improvised by Orson Welles for his character, Harry Lime, in the film of Graham Greene’s script for “The Third Man.” In Lime’s cynical attempt to justify warfare and brutality, he contrasts the glories of the blood-drenched Italian Renaissance with the alleged vacuity of Switzerland, whose only contribution to the world after “500 years of democracy and peace” was the cuckoo clock.
Lime and Wells are wrong, says Sutherland; “The cuckoo clock was invented in the mid-eighteenth century in southern Germany.”
As its title suggests, this book is a grab-bag of facts, figures, factoids and trivia. The first female detective in literature, for example, was probably Amelia Butterworth, who made her debut in Anna Katharine Green’s “That Affair Next Door” (1897).
But “Curiosities” also serves up some criticism. Take the squib on Anthony Trollope’s grumpy death: Already suffering from angina, the novelist threw open a hotel window and railed at a German brass band, which was annoying him mightily; a few days later he was gone, and in Sutherland’s phrase it was “death by tuba and hurdy-gurdy.”
In an aside, Sutherland repeats with approval G.K. Chesterton’s epithet for Trollope: “the lesser Thackeray.” Perhaps it is time for those of us who’ve devoured the Barsetshire and Palliser series to take a fresh look at William Makepeace.
By Dan Keating
Washington Post Writers Group
Nonfiction
The Wikipedia Revolution How a Bunch of Nobodies Created the World’s Greatest Encyclopedia, by Andrew Lih, $24.95
I recently read a magazine article that mentioned Nikola Tesla as if everyone knew his accomplishments. I didn’t, so I threw his name into a search engine. A Wikipedia entry came up first. Fifteen minutes later I had a much better idea of his inventions.
As media critic Andrew Lih explains in “The Wikipedia Revolution,” Wikipedia has become one of the 10 highest-traffic sites on the Internet based on a pretty crazy idea: Rather than use experts, create an encyclopedia written and edited by anybody who wanders by.
Every entry has an “edit this page” tab that you can click on without registering or signing in or getting any permission, and your update appears instantly. Consumers who just browse entries may be oblivious to the fanatical volunteers who write, edit, patrol for vandalism and argue vehemently with each other.
Lih tells of the 2002 “Spanish Fork,” a revolt by members who started their own version, Enciclopedia Libre, over a mere hint that Wikipedia might carry advertisements.
I learned from Lih to check out the “Discussion” pages. They show what grade articles have been given by the vote of members. That article on Tesla, for instance, is “B-class,” not quite up to the “Good” standard.
