I love old books, and love Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. Recently at an antique store, I found the book, Cassell’s Book of Quotations, by W. Gurney Benham. I had never heard of it before, and wondered if if came out before or after Bartlett’s. It has a number, which I’m hoping is the copyright, in roman numerals of MCMVII – when is that? Sorry, my knowledge of roman numerals is really bad.
It is the coolest book, with lots of ‘regular’ quotes, and a lot of other good stuff, including Greek and Latin quotes, proverbs and mottoes translated.
In the preface, it says, “many excellent handbooks of proverbs, and also of classical and foreign quotations, have already been published, but none, as far as I am aware, with a full verbal index.”
One of my favorite funny quotes is, “Without black velvet breeches, what is a man?” – Rev. J. Bramston, Men of Taste.
Anyone else own a copy or know anything about it? I did an Altavista web search and didn’t find anything of substance.
