A Noble Madness : The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now
A Noble Madness : The Dark Side of Collecting from Antiquity to Now
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Author(s): Delbourgo, James
ISBN No.: 9780393541960
Pages: 288
Year: 202508
Format: Trade Cloth (Hard Cover)
Price: $ 44.15
Dispatch delay: Dispatched between 7 to 15 days
Status: Available (Forthcoming)

Collectors are often praised for their taste in art or contributions to science, but there can be a darker side: their passion is sometimes driven by dangerous obsession. Roman emperors who lusted after statues; Chinese scholars obsessed with rocks and flowers; fin de siècle dandies surrounded by bibelots. History is full of stories about those who love things more than people, presenting a danger either to themselves or others. In this sweeping history from antiquity to today, James Delbourgo tells the extraordinary story of the mad collector as a cultural figure from the tyrant and idolater to the sexually repressed "psycho" of the Freudian imagination and the modern-day hoarder. His conclusion is surprising: Because they are driven by passion rather than profit, obsessive collectors also have been cultural heroes, seen as authentic and true to themselves. Some may be mad, but theirs is a noble madness.


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