Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, With a Catalogue of His Works

John NicholsProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.6
Word count
869K words
Chapters
87

Tags

English Originals Artists Social CustomsArtistic ArchiveAnecdotes of FiguresEngraverArt BiographyComplex HumanityCatalogueSatirical StyleSatirical PrintsLondon Art Scene

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, With a Catalogue of His Works by Nichols. Author: Nichols, John, 1745–1826. Language: English. Class: ND: Fine Arts: Painting. Release Date: Aug 21, 2016.

Editor's review

This collection of biographical anecdotes of William Hogarth by John Nichols combines biographical narrative with a catalogue of his works, making it an important historical text for understanding this English painter and engraver. The book traces episodes of Hogarth's life from the perspective of his contemporaries and includes a list of works, giving it primary-source value for research on 18th-century English painting, the circulation of prints, and social satirical imagery. As a free Project Gutenberg eBook, it is easy to search and cite, and is suitable for art history students who wish to verify work information item by item. Readers may do well to treat it as historical source material rather than a popular biography: the anecdotal sections convey the atmosphere of the period, while the catalogue is best consulted alongside visual materials. The overall language is 19th-century English, and the narrative is dense, requiring some patience.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the catalogue of works first to gain an overall impression, then return to the biographical anecdotes; understanding will be smoother.
  2. Read alongside reproductions of Hogarth's prints or online collection images to avoid discussing the works in the abstract.
  3. Take brief notes on key names of people, places, and works for later verification and citation.
  4. The book can be read in fragments chapter by chapter, treating the anecdotal sections as historical material of the period rather than a continuous narrative.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58
  59. 59
  60. 60
  61. 61
  62. 62
  63. 63
  64. 64
  65. 65
  66. 66
  67. 67
  68. 68
  69. 69
  70. 70
  71. 71
  72. 72
  73. 73
  74. 74
  75. 75
  76. 76
  77. 77
  78. 78
  79. 79
  80. 80
  81. 81
  82. 82
  83. 83
  84. 84
  85. 85
  86. 86
  87. 87

FAQ

Does this book include plates of Hogarth's works? According to the available information, the book consists of textual biographical anecdotes with a catalogue of works; it is not stated to contain plates. It is better used as textual historical material and a list of works, while visual appreciation requires a separate picture album or online image resources.
What level of English is needed to read this book? The original text is 19th-century English, with long sentences and somewhat archaic wording. Readers with university-level English reading ability who are willing to consult background materials will adapt more easily; beginners may start with the introduction or selected passages.
What are the edition details of this eBook? The book was released by Project Gutenberg, and the information shows a release year of 2019, with John Nichols (1745–1826) as the original author. It is a free electronic text that is easy to search, but readers should note the textual collation status themselves.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

John Nichols Author · English · 1745–1826

John Nichols (1745–1826) was an English printer, writer, and antiquary, born in Islington, London, and long the editor of The Gentleman's Magazine. A diligent collector of historical materials, he wrote Literary Anecdotes of the Eighteenth Century and The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester, and took part in printing and publishing the Domesday Book. Four of his works are held here, all concerning the painter William Hogarth: Biographical Anecdotes of William Hogarth, with a Catalogue of His Works (1781), and the three-volume Hogarth's Works, with life and anecdotal descriptions of his pictures. Combining biographical material with cataloguing, these writings are valuable early sources for the study of Hogarth's life and art.