{"title":"James Delbourgo","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJames Delbourgo\u003c\/strong\u003e offers compelling explorations into the intersections of history, culture, and human curiosity. His works invite readers into richly told narratives that uncover the passions behind collecting and the eccentric characters who have shaped cultural legacies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlending elements of \u003cem\u003ebiography\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003earts \u0026amp; culture\u003c\/em\u003e, Delbourgo’s writing delves into extraordinary lives and the objects that define them, painting vivid portraits of obsession, discovery, and the pursuit of knowledge.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"collecting-the-world-by-james-delbourgo-9780718194437","title":"Collecting the World","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA fascinating, vivid biography of the founder of the British Museum and an exploration of the itch to accumulate.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHans Sloane was the greatest collector of his time, and one of the greatest of all time. His name is familiar today through the London streets and squares named after him, but the man himself, and his achievements, are almost forgotten.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBorn in the north of Ireland, Sloane made his fortune as a physician to London's wealthiest residents. In 1687, he travelled to Jamaica, then at the heart of Britain's commercial empire, to survey its natural history and later organised a network of correspondents who sent him curiosities from across the world. He became one of the eighteenth century's preeminent natural historians and assembled an astonishing collection of specimens, artefacts, and oddities—the most famous curiosity cabinet of the age. Shortly after his death, Sloane's vast collection was then acquired—as he had hoped—by the nation. It became the nucleus of the world's first national public museum, the British Museum.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the first biography of Sloane in over sixty years and the first based on his surviving collections. Early modern science and collecting are shown to be global endeavours intertwined with empire and slavery but which nonetheless produced one of the great public institutions of the Enlightenment, as the cabinet of curiosities gave way to the encyclopaedic museum. \u003cem\u003eCollecting the World\u003c\/em\u003e describes this pivotal moment in the emergence of modern knowledge, and brings this totemic figure back to life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46370277851372,"sku":"9780718194437","price":35.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/19159403482443.jpg?v=1744806887"},{"product_id":"a-noble-madness-by-james-delbourgo-9781529424034","title":"A Noble Madness","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Noble Madness\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e offers a magisterial rethinking of why we collect. \"I loved this book,\" says Edmund de Waal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Magnificent... so compulsive and entertaining,\"\u003c\/strong\u003e notes Stephen Fry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"Give it to the collector in your life, and watch sparks fly!\"\u003c\/strong\u003e advises Cathy Gere.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A delight to read and ponder,\"\u003c\/strong\u003e remarks Jackson Lears.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\"A tour de force of scholarship and storytelling,\"\u003c\/strong\u003e states Daniel Weiss.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA captivating history of obsessive collectors:\u003c\/strong\u003e From ancient looters and idolaters to fin de siècle decadents, Freudian psychos, and hoarders.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eCollectors are often praised for their taste in art or contributions to science, but there can be a darker side: their passion is sometimes driven by dangerous obsession. Roman emperors who lusted after statues; Chinese scholars obsessed with rocks and flowers; fin de siècle dandies surrounded by bibelots. History is full of stories about those who love things more than people, presenting a danger either to themselves or others.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this sweeping history from antiquity to today, James Delbourgo tells the extraordinary story of the mad collector as a cultural figure from the tyrant and idolater to the sexually repressed \"psycho\" of the Freudian imagination and the modern-day hoarder. His conclusion is surprising: Because they are driven by passion rather than profit, obsessive collectors have also been cultural heroes, seen as authentic and true to themselves. Some may be mad, but theirs is a \u003cstrong\u003enoble madness\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Hachette Aotearoa New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47872818151660,"sku":"9781529424034","price":29.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781529424034-a-noble-madness.jpg?v=1782935477"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/collections\/james-delbourgo.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}