The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 47, November 5, 2005, Article 19

THE ENEMIES OF BOOKS

Last week I published a couple of excerpts from the
digital version of William Blades' 1888 work, "The
Enemies of Books". Here are two more interesting
(and not exactly politically correct) sections:

[On Spring cleaning...]

"Dust! it is all a delusion. It is not the dust that makes
women anxious to invade the inmost recesses of your Sanctum--
it is an ingrained curiosity. And this feminine weakness,
which dates from Eve, is a common motive in the stories
of our oldest literature and Folk-lore. What made Fatima
so anxious to know the contents of the room forbidden her
by Bluebeard? It was positively nothing to her, and its
contents caused not the slightest annoyance to anybody.
That story has a bad moral, and it would, in many ways,
have been more satisfactory had the heroine been left to
take her place in the blood-stained chamber, side by side
with her peccant predecessors.  Why need the women-folk
(God forgive me!) bother themselves about the inside of a
man's library, and whether it wants dusting or not?"

[On children]

"Children, with all their innocence, are often guilty of
book-murder. I must confess to having once taken down
"Humphrey's History of Writing," which contains many
brightly-coloured plates, to amuse a sick daughter.
The object was certainly gained, but the consequences
of so bad a precedent were disastrous. That copy (which,
I am glad to say, was easily re-placed), notwithstanding
great care on my part, became soiled and torn, and at
last was given up to Nursery martyrdom. Can I regret it?
surely not, for, although bibliographically sinful, who
can weigh the amount of real pleasure received, and
actual pain ignored, by the patient in the contemplation
of those beautifully-blended colours?

A neighbour of mine some few years ago suffered severely
from a propensity, apparently irresistible, in one of his
daughters to tear his library books. She was six years old,
and would go quietly to a shelf and take down a book or
two, and having torn a dozen leaves or so down the middle,
would replace the volumes, fragments and all, in their
places, the damage being undiscovered until the books were
wanted for use. Reprimand, expostulation and even punishment
were of no avail; but a single "whipping" effected a cure."

Full Story

[Note to my kids: keep your paws off Daddy's books!!
Or else!   -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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