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Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎19v] (38/42)

The record is made up of 1 file (21 folios). It was created in 1865. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .

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216
Caricature and Grotesque
present occasion, to confine ourselves entirely to the artistic por
tion of them: enlivened, as it is, by a new series of Mr. Fair-
holt's excellent illustrations. Our inability to transfer these to
our own pages places us, as we feel, at a great disadvantage:
many words are required to explain to the reader the contents of
a picture, which a few outlines by an able hand impress at
once visibly on the recollection. Deprived of this advantage,
we must confine ourselves as well as we can to the points on
which caricature touches the history of social and political life,
rather than those by which it borders on the great domain of
Art, properly so called.
£ The word caricature is not found in the dictionaries, I believe,
until the appearance of that of Dr. Johnson, in 1755. Caricature is,
of course, an Italian word, derived from the verb caricare, to charge or
load ; and therefore it means a picture which is charged or exaggerated.
["Eitratto ridicolo," says Baretti's Dictionary, "in cui fiensi grandemente
accresciuti i difetti." The old French dictionaries say: " c'est la memo
chose que charge en peinture."] The word appears not to have come into
use in Italy until the latter half of fche seventeenth century, and the ear
liest instance I know of its employment by an English writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. is that
quoted by Johnson from the £ Christian Morals' of Sir Thomas Brown,
who died in 1682, but it was one of his latest writings, and was not printed
till long after his death: " Expose not thyself by fourfooted manners
unto monstrous draughts (i. e. drawings) and caricatura representations."
This very quaint writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. , who had passed some time in Italy, evidently
uses it as an exotic word. We find it next employed by the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of
the Essay, No. 537, of the ' Spectator,' who, speaking of the way in
which different people are led by feelings of jealousy and prejudice to
detract from the characters of others, goes on to say " From all these
hands we have such draughts of mankind as are represented in those
burlesque pictures which the Italians call caricaturas, where the art
consists in preserving amidst distorted proportions and aggravated
features, some distinguishing likeness of the person, but in such a
manner as to transform the most agreeable beauty into the most odious
monster." The word was not fully established in our language in its
English form of caricature until late in the last century.'—p. 415.
This, no doubt, is a serviceable, artistic definition of the word ;
but its popular meaning is, perhaps, a little more limited. It
would be difficult accurately to distinguish ' caricature' in com
position, according to the above description, from what we simply
term 'grotesque;' exaggeration, that is, of natural effects for the
mere purpose of the ludicrous. In using the word caricature,
we generally add to this notion that of satire; and the best defi
nition for our purpose, as well as to suit ordinary apprehension,
though not at all originating in the primary meaning of the word,
will be, that caricature implies the use of the grotesque for the
purpose

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Content

Three published reviews of Palgrave's Arabia , one from a journal and two from newspapers:

  • Pages 182-215 from the Quarterly Review which contained a review of Palgrave's Arabia (ff. 2v-19). The review is undated but is believed to be c.1865.
  • Press cutting from the Friend of India of their review of 'Mr Palgrave's journey through Arabia'. The Press Cutting is undated but is believed be c.1865.
  • Press cutting from the Times of India , 4 November 1865 of an article entitled 'Central and Eastern Arabia' which reviews Palgrave's book.

The publication which the reviews relate to:

William Gifford Palgrave, A Narrative of a year's journey through Central and Eastern Arabia 1862-1863 (London, 1865)

Extent and format
1 file (21 folios)
Physical characteristics

Foliation: This file has been foliated in the top right hand corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. of each folio with a pencil number enclosed in a circle.

Written in
English in Latin script
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Reviews of A Narrative of a Year's Journey through Central and Eastern Arabia, 1862-63 by William Gifford Palgrave, Published 1865 [‎19v] (38/42), British Library: India Office Records and Private Papers, Mss Eur F126/68, in Qatar Digital Library <https://www.qdl.qa/archive/81055/vdc_100023318133.0x000027> [accessed 28 March 2024]

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