Tea at Trianon: The World’s Most Storied Bookstores

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

The World’s Most Storied Bookstores

From LitHub:

Heywood Hill, London
This shop, named for its first owner who opened the doors in August of 1936, has been the setting of two terrific recent novels I’ve loved—The Bookseller’s Secret by Michelle Gable, and The Little Mayfair Bookshop by Eliza Knight. It rivals 84 Charing Cross Road for most famous bookstore in England, perhaps because during the second world war, the infamous socialite, writer, and “bright young thing” Nancy Mitford worked there and shone her star power on the stacks. Fun Fact: Heywood Hill was known for its literary soirees, and one of their first celebrated the first (legal) English edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

The Strand, New York
18 miles of Books! You can buy a t-shirt or hat and boast that you browsed some of these miles in the labyrinthine stacks of this world-famous bookstore, which opened in 1927 on 4th Avenue in the Village, when it was known as “Book Row” because there were 48 bookstores on 6 blocks. Originally, the Strand was a used bookstore, but now those 18 miles are located in a building on 12th and Broadway and contain plenty of recent releases; plus, it’s still known as an amazing place to find a great read at a bargain price. Among book nerds, it’s an essential destination. When I lived in New York years ago, all my reader-friends would ask about the Strand, and demand to spend at least two hours there on any visit to the city. Now, writer-friends get a special thrill out of locating their novels amongst the millions of others on the shelves—many an Instagram post is made of just this moment! (Read more.)