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A wonderfully entertaining and idiosyncratic tour of the lives of those whose names have become part of the language, from Joseph Guillotin to Joseph B. Frisbie. What is the connection between a rather unflattering item of clothing and the French trapeze artist Jules Leotard? Which filling did the Earl of Sandwich opt for when he made his great culinary invention? And was there really a Sir Oswald Binge whose week-long feasts were notorious for their excess?The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium answers these and many other questions drawn from the remoter corners of the English language, exploring the lives of an extraordinarily diverse range of people who happen to have one thing in common- by chance or deliberately, they have left their names deeply embedded in the language and consciousness of future generations. Each figure has something to tell us about a moment in history, or a discovery or invention, whether it's Laszl Bir and his pioneering writing implement, or tienne de Silhouette who, having fallen from grace at the French court, spent much of the later part of his life mournfully cutting out paper shapes. Not to mention the Reverend Robert Lechmere Guppy, fish-discoverer extraordinaire.Each life in The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium is quirky and often bizarre. Few of them would merit a footnote, let alone an entry, in the history books. But they all reveal that the prospect of immortality is only a fluke away. In an age of instant 15-minute celebrity, that's a reassuring thought.… (meer)
I'm glad that someone has finally gotten around to highlighting those people who have, whether they knew it or not, become part of the lexicon. To be honest, I never gave much thought to whether there was a Mr or Ms Leotard the leotard was named after or whether "leotard" was a name dreamt up by a marketing department. The same for "guppy" (although I can't imagine why a marketing department would ever come up with the name "guppy") or "Mercedes". Dodd has seen the gap in the market and admirably filled it, with "The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium".
Although by a few chapters in one has picked up the general gist of "Dodd's talking about jacuzzis and I'm guessing, by the general thrust of the book, that there was a person called Jacuzzi the spa is named after", Dodd's writing never goes stale and you get caught up in the lives of Ernst Grafenberg (of G-Spot fame), Samuel Maverick, Laszlo Biro and, of course, the Reverend Robert Lechmere Guppy. ( )
A wonderfully entertaining and idiosyncratic tour of the lives of those whose names have become part of the language, from Joseph Guillotin to Joseph B. Frisbie. What is the connection between a rather unflattering item of clothing and the French trapeze artist Jules Leotard? Which filling did the Earl of Sandwich opt for when he made his great culinary invention? And was there really a Sir Oswald Binge whose week-long feasts were notorious for their excess?The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium answers these and many other questions drawn from the remoter corners of the English language, exploring the lives of an extraordinarily diverse range of people who happen to have one thing in common- by chance or deliberately, they have left their names deeply embedded in the language and consciousness of future generations. Each figure has something to tell us about a moment in history, or a discovery or invention, whether it's Laszl Bir and his pioneering writing implement, or tienne de Silhouette who, having fallen from grace at the French court, spent much of the later part of his life mournfully cutting out paper shapes. Not to mention the Reverend Robert Lechmere Guppy, fish-discoverer extraordinaire.Each life in The Reverend Guppy's Aquarium is quirky and often bizarre. Few of them would merit a footnote, let alone an entry, in the history books. But they all reveal that the prospect of immortality is only a fluke away. In an age of instant 15-minute celebrity, that's a reassuring thought.
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Although by a few chapters in one has picked up the general gist of "Dodd's talking about jacuzzis and I'm guessing, by the general thrust of the book, that there was a person called Jacuzzi the spa is named after", Dodd's writing never goes stale and you get caught up in the lives of Ernst Grafenberg (of G-Spot fame), Samuel Maverick, Laszlo Biro and, of course, the Reverend Robert Lechmere Guppy. ( )