Glamour: A History
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.83 (762 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0199210985 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 464 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-04-29 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Essential for those with a keen interest in the sociology of popular culture and stardom."--Library Journal"A substantial book about an insubstantial, yet somehow fascinating, topic."--The Independent"Well-researched and thoughtfully written, this book manages to be an excellent read and will to anyone interested in popular culture."--Books Quarterly"Glamour: A History is on the whole a wonderfully engaging read."--Otago Daily Times"The book captures the excitement and sex appeal of glamour while exposing its mechanisms and ex
Stephen Gundle is Professor of Film and Television Studies at Warwick University.
Here is the first ever history of glamour, ranging from Paris in the tumultuous final decades of the eighteenth century through to Hollywood, New York, and Monte Carlo in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from the glamorous fictional characters of Walter Scott to iconic figures such as Marlene Dietrich and Marilyn Monroe to modern idols such as Paris Hilton. The book maps the origins of glamour and investigates the forms that it took in modern times, discussing the role of writers, journalists, artists, photographers, film-makers and fashion designers, occupations like the model and the air stewardess, cities and resorts such as Paris, New York, and Monte Carlo, and products including luxury cars and jets--all of which are bathed in the public mind with the magical aura of glamour. And he shows how glamour feeds on the middle class yearning for a thrilling and colorful life, a yearning reinforced by the cinema and the press, which serve as a stage for acting out scenes of a desirable life.
Disappointing. Miss Yoka I was fooled by the attractive cover of this book to believe that it would focus on glamour and its influential presence in society but instead its author details the fad of celebrity and self-promotion. Whereas the celebrity wishes to be observed, glamour is what causes us to observe -- a ra. "the history of celebrity and its dimensions" according to Henry Berry. Social history at its most engaging and topical, Grundle gets to the essence of glamour and its fascination for modern-day publics, especially democratic ones. Although published by a leading academic publisher and in stretches written in a somewhat academic style (Grundle is a professor of f. Boring gaby I should have listened to that one reviewer. I just can't seem to get through this book. I thought it would be more fashion oriented and maybe it is but I just can't get through it.