The Virago Book of the Joy of Shopping

by JillFoulston (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.24

  Jane Austen found her sister Cassandra a locket. Joan Didion bought nail enamel and a toaster on impulse. Karyn Bosnak charged $20,000 on credit cards - and wild child Elizabeth Wurtzel got caught shoplifting. George Eliot, on the other hand, hated shopping. Those are the true stories, but there are hundreds of fictional shoppers: The Girl with the Pearl Earring turned up her nose at some stale meat; Tom Ripley lusted after Venetian leather goods, while Jane Eyre cringed at Mr Rochester's pre-wedding excess. This is the first anthology to feature writing about shopping by women throughout history. Buy it.

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $4.32

  Jane Austen found her sister Cassandra a locket. Joan Didion bought nail enamel and a toaster on impulse. Karyn Bosnak charged $20,000 on credit cards, and Elizabeth Wurtzel got caught shoplifting. George Eliot, for some reason, hated shopping. As people began to shop more, novelists imagined them doing it. Jane Eyre cringes at Mr Rochester's pre-wedding excess, while Undine Spragg's spending drives her husband to despair. The Girl with a Pearl Earring turns up her nose at some stale meat, Tom Ripley lusts after Venetian leather, and Mrs Dalloway chooses flowers on Bond Street. The darker side of shopping is here in the letters, diaries and memoirs of those who remember blackmarkets and rations. There are even records from the Old Bailey of audacious and desperate five-finger discounts, and a recent account of brawling at IKEA. The Virago Book of Shopping revels in the lists, the etiquette and the thrills of finding just the right thing. This is it. Buy it.

• New

  Paperback
  2010

  $12.48

  Jane Austen found her sister Cassandra a locket. Joan Didion bought nail enamel and a toaster on impulse. Karyn Bosnak charged $20,000 on credit cards - and wild child Elizabeth Wurtzel got caught shoplifting. George Eliot, on the other hand, hated shopping. Those are the true stories, but there are hundreds of fictional shoppers: The Girl with the Pearl Earring turned up her nose at some stale meat; Tom Ripley lusted after Venetian leather goods, while Jane Eyre cringed at Mr Rochester's pre-wedding excess. This is the first anthology to feature writing about shopping by women throughout history. Buy it.