Review by Booklist Review
University of Chicago PhD Purnell is a history instructor, interior-design writer, and self-described lover of bizarre facts. In her first book, she takes readers through a fascinating tour of the senses as they existed in the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment. Purnell explores how, though human senses were the same as they are today, the ways people framed their experiences of their senses were part and parcel of an ever-evolving, civil society. A fun, historical page-turner filled with one awesome vignette after another on the curious social behavior of the day, Purnell's book will enchant its audience. She explores captivating cultural phenomena, including the evolution of coffee houses, how drowning victims were treated by blowing tobacco smoke up their rectums, and scientists' attempts to develop pills that would make farts and poop smell better. With a solid, well-researched core of intriguing facts and hints of academia, Purnell's fascinating first book appeals to history-philes, armchair trivia enthusiasts, and students of the senses alike.--Mattalia, Glendy X. Copyright 2017 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Purnell, visiting assistant professor of history at the Illinois Institute of Technology, thoroughly yet lightheartedly explores the sensory theories of Europe's 18th-century intelligentsia and how these ideas influenced culture, lived experience, and scientific endeavors of the time. Purnell finds an emblematic juxtaposition of concern and cruelty in the ways in which Enlightenment philosophes analyzed the senses, noting such examples as the Marquis de Sade's fascination with intense pain, the founding of the first schools for the blind, and the use of a "cat piano" to help relieve depression. She also delves into the ways the physical senses could lead to increased social differences, as with gastronomes advocating both a "love of food" and a "form of elitism." The use of color in clothing and furnishings accentuated class distinction, and smells-as from perfumed soaps or their lack-could help reinforce social status. Purnell shows that many modern attitudes were formed during the Enlightenment, including theories of "physical perfectibility" and a much-theorized reliance on visual communication and metaphor. As Purnell enlightens readers on the origin of the word "restaurant" or the medical reasons to "blow smoke up one's ass," she reveals the many subtle ways we make sense of our world. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Historian Purnell aims to show how in the 18th and 19th centuries "people experienced their senses in daily life." Given their understanding of "sensibility," she writes, they "trusted that every decision, sensation, purchase, touch, sight, scent, taste, and experience had the power to transform the mind, body, and personality." This book ranges well beyond the Enlightenment. Its chapters span the "pitch-black markets" of nighttime Paris; Valentin Haüy's school for the blind; Benjamin Franklin's pill that, by changing the scent of the "great Quantity of Wind" that was "produced in the Bowels of human Creatures" might, says Purnell, "make flatulence the sweet-smelling life of the party"; Emanuel Swedenborg's theory about the sixth sense, sex; a 16th-century piano made with live cats; and, William Buckland's effort to eat "his way straight through the whole of animal creation" in Victorian Britain. VERDICT With its episodic approach and a propensity for synthesis, this book is largely intended for general readers. It is also a highly entertaining account that achieves the author's stated goal: "If you learn a little or laugh a little, then I consider my job to be done."-Mark Spencer, Brock Univ., St. Catharines, Ont. © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
