Literature and Material Culture from Balzac to Proust
Subtitle: The Collection and Consumption of Curiosities (Cambridge Studies in French)
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: January 28, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780521661560
Subjects: Literary studies: 19th century; Literary Criticism; European - General; Literature - Classics / Criticism; French; Europe; European - French; French literature--19th century--History and criticism; Literary Collections / Continental European; 19th century; Art objects in literature; French literature; History and criticism
First sentence: By the 1880s, the medieval French word bibelot (knick-knack), which in the fifteenth century designated miscellaneous household items of little value, is revived by the most elite among Parisian collectors to designate the objects most precious to them, even though the term is also used to refer to the cheapest industrial kitsch.