Scottish chapbook literature
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2025-12-12 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77447 |
Description
"The homosexual in literature" by Noel I. Garde is a critical reference work and survey of literary representations written in the mid-20th century. It catalogues and critiques depictions of homosexual characters and themes across periods and traditions, providing annotated entries and commentary for readers evaluating how such figures have been portrayed in literature. The opening of the volume you provided outlines a survey of Scottish chapbook culture: its aims, scope, and sources, and the challenges of defining a “chapbook.” It sketches the rise of chapbooks from early broadsides and Reformation prints through a flourishing era when chapmen spread cheap literature across towns and moors, noting printers, censorship, sales practices, crude illustrations, and later decline as cheaper series emerged. It then classifies the field, highlighting the popularity of humorous pieces—especially those by Dougal Graham—with vivid scenes of rustic courtship, weddings, kirk discipline, and social satire, alongside other humorists and verse tales. Next it turns to “instructive” chapbooks, summarizing historical accounts (Bothwell Bridge, Drumclog, the ’45 as narrated by an eyewitness pedlar), topical broadsides and execution “last speeches,” and biographical lives of national figures, before touching on religious and moral tracts and widely read sermons. (This is an automatically generated summary.)