In the Blink of an Eye - A Cultural History of Spectacles : A Cultural History of Spectacles - Stefana Sabin

In the Blink of an Eye - A Cultural History of Spectacles

A Cultural History of Spectacles

By: Stefana Sabin

Hardcover | 12 July 2021

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This book examines those who wore glasses through history, art and literature, from the green emerald through which Emperor Nero watched gladiator fights to Benjamin Franklin’s homemade bifocals, and from Marilyn Monroe’s cat-eye glasses to Emma Bovary and Harry Potter.

Spectacles are objects that seem commonplace, but this book shows that because they fundamentally changed people’s lives, glasses were the wellspring of a quiet social, cultural and economic revolution. Indeed, one can argue that modernity itself began with the paradigm shift that transformed poor eyesight from a severely limiting disease, treated with pomades and tinctures, into a minor impairment that can be remedied with mechanisms constructed from lenses and wire.

About the Author

Stefana Sabin has written for the Neue Zurcher Zeitung, edited several anthologies of contemporary prose and published biographies of Andy Warhol and Gertrude Stein, among others. She lives in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

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