Addison and Steele: Selections from the Tatler and the Spectator by Joseph Addison
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I love to stand in front of and admire the Vanity Fair "Spy" prints at The Grand Hotel when I visit. I love the droll humor and suppose the packed frames on a green wall is a Carlton Varney. Somehow, I thought this compendium of writing from a century before that would strike me the same way. Maybe with illustrations, it would! Addison and Steele could easily have been the Colbert and Jon Stewart of their time, but I mostly found the musings of Isaac Bickerstaff, William Honeycomb, etc. to ring fairly flat these days, IMO. Still, the chronological selections from The Tatler and The Spectator and an important part of journalistic history, and I respect that. The work includes footnotes to explain references and translate the Latin epigraphs which along with content on literature and stage (and a very interesting one doubting the reality of witchcraft) suggest writing for a more educated and sophisticated audience than popular mags of today aim for (People, etc.) making this seem like a cross between The Arts section from the NYT and Mad Magazine.
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