Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 2

A delightful relic of 19th-century antiquarianism, this collection assembles Isaac Disraeli's essays on literature, history, and cultural curiousities. The pieces wander through the lives of notable figures, Charles I's quixotic journey to Spain hoping to marry the Infanta, the Duke of Buckingham's dramatic career, and examine the customs, superstitions, and political intrigues of earlier eras. Disraeli synthesizes accounts from various chroniclers, creating a patchwork of historical anecdote that reflects the Victorian appetite for literary lore and learned digression. The prose has an old-fashioned, discursive quality, full of tangents and wandering explorations that some readers will find enchanting and others may find sprawling. It's the literary equivalent of a cabinet of curiosities: strange, varied, occasionally wondrous. Those who enjoy Victorian ephemera, literary history, and the peculiar pleasure of seeing how past generations understood their literary heritage will find much to savor here, even if the scholarly rigor doesn't meet modern standards.