“Wonderful… a strange gallimaufry of a book but an entirely joyous one”
 - Lynn Barber in The Sunday Times

”This witty, ingeniously structured book – at once a serious appraisal of a complex cultural phenomenon and a compendium of scurrilously funny stories ….seldom have I learned so much for a single book while simultaneously being so excellently entertained” 

 - Lucy Hughes-Hallett in The Times

“like a plum pudding, this book is both nourishing and full of succulent bits and pieces”

 - Martin Gayford in The Daily Telegraph

“This is grand entertainment, as well as a serious history”

 - Prospect

Britain in the nineteenth century saw a series of social, technological and social changes which continue to influence and direct us today. Its reactants were human genius, money and influence, its crucibles the streets and institutions, its catalyst time, its control the market.

In this fascinating book, James Hamilton investigates the relationship between culture and business in nineteenth-century Britain, which became a centre for world commerce following the industrial revolution. He explores how art was made and paid for, the turns of fashion, and the new demands of a growing middle-class, prominent among whom were the artists themselves.

While the leading figures of the world of art and literature are players here, so too are patrons, financiers, collectors and industrialists; lawyers, publishers, entrepreneurs and journalists; artists' suppliers, engravers, photographers and curators; hostesses, shopkeepers and brothel keepers; quacks, charlatans and auctioneers. Together, they created a potent mixture to hurry the rapid growth of culture in Britain.

A Strange Business captures the vibrant exchange between culture and commerce in Britain during the first-half of the nineteenth century, and gives a valuable insight into the working lives of some of our most celebrated artists.

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kontakt:

Piotr Wawrzeńczyk

piotr@literatura.com.pl