Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Ten of the best noses in literature

For the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best noses in literature.

One novel on the list:
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne

Tristram's dad is a nose-obsessive: "he collected every book and treatise which had been systematically wrote upon noses". He comes to believe that a man's greatness is announced by his nose and is naturally disconsolate when his son's nose is crushed during birth by Dr Slop. The worst start in life.
Read about the other entries on the list.

Tristram Shandy
also appears among Peter Carey's top ten works of literature, Thomas C. Schelling's influential books, Bamber Gascoigne's six best books, and John Mullan's lists of ten of the best deathbed scenes in literature and ten of the best handkerchiefs in literature.

--Marshal Zeringue