by Sir Roy Strong (Author)
Toenails cut while dining out, meals served to wax effigies of the dead, napkins concealing singing birds, dishes descending from the ceiling - these are just a few of the more exotic aspects of everyman at table. From the stupendous banquets of the Ancient Babylonians, Fest covers five millennia of formal eating. Sharing a meal, in particular a grand one, has always been a complex social mechanism for uniting and dividing people. Such an event could signal peace, a marriage, a victory, an alliance, a coming-of-age, a coronation or a funeral. The feast was a vehicle for display and ostentation, for the parade of rank and hierachy, for flattering and influencing people as well as providing a theatre in which to excercise the art of conversation and the display of manners. Feast offers a fascinating and, at times, a highly unusual mirror of society. It gathers together for the first time all the ingredients which contributed to the phenomenon of the celebratory meal- the people, the clothes, the food, the setting, the action and its circumstances. In an age which has virtually abolished the shared meal as a central feature of daily living, Feast presents a revelatory picture
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
Edition: New edition
Publisher: Pimlico
Published: 06 Nov 2003
ISBN 10: 0712667598
ISBN 13: 9780712667593
Book Overview: Only the puritan - or the seriously dyspeptic - could fail to enjoy this book.' Sunday Telegraph'We are all interested in food, but for anyone curious about its history, this book is a must.' Alan Davidson