Footnotes have not had it easy. Their dominance of eighteenth- and nineteenth- century literature and scholarship was both hard-won -- following many years of struggle -- and doomed, as it led to belittlement in the twentieth century. In The Devil's Details, Chuck Zerby playfully explores footnotes' long and illustrious history and makes a clarion call to save them from the new world of the Internet and hypertext.
In a story that boasts a marvelous plot and a rogues' gallery of players, Zerby examines traditional footnotes and their less-buttoned-down incarnations, as when used by pornographers. Yes, The Devil's Details is full of surprises: Zerby hunts down the first bona fide fully functioning footnote; unearths a multivolume history of Northumberland County, England, that uses one volume for a single footnote; and uncovers a murder plot. He even explains why footnotes are like blind dates.
Carefully researched and highly opinionated, The Devil's Details affirms that delight in reading can come from unexpected places.

- 160 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Praise
- Colophon
- Title Page
- Dedication
- Copyright
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1. The Endangered Footnote
- 2. The Early Years
- 3. A Poetic Interlude
- 4. The Years of Discipline
- 5. The Illusion of Empire
- 6. A Poetic Interlude II
- 7. Toward the Virtual Footnote
- Notes
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Yes, you can access The Devil's Details by Chuck Zerby in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Literary Criticism. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.