Through The Looking Glasses: The Spectacular Life of Spectacles

by Travis Elborough

The humble pair of glasses might just be one the world's greatest inventions, allowing millions to see a world that might otherwise appear a blur. And yet how much do many of us even really think about these things perched on the ends of our noses?

In this eye-opening history Travis Elborough traces the fascinating true story of spectacles: from their inception as primitive visual aids to monkish scribes right through to today's designer eyewear and the augmented reality of Google Glass. And taking in along the way such delights as lorgnettes, monocles, pince-nez, tortoise-shell 'Windsors' and Ray Ban aviator shades.

Peering into early theories about how the eye worked, he considers the theological and philosophical arguments about the limits of perception by Greek thinkers, Roman statesmen and Arab scholars. There are encounters with ingenious medieval Italian glassmakers, myopic Renaissance rulers and spectacle-makers and opticians, brilliant, mad, bad and dangerous to know, in the Londons of Samuel Pepys, Dr Johnson and Sherlock Holmes.

We learn how eyeglasses were the making of the silent movie star Harold Lloyd and the rock n roller Buddy Holly and helped liberate an exasperated John Lennon from Beatlemania. Get hip to horn-rims with Dizzy Gillespie and Michael Caine And see girls in glasses through the lenses of the crime fiction by Dorothy L Sayers and Raymond Chandler and the full-screen figure of Marilyn Monroe.

Through the Looking Glasses is about vision and the need for humanity to see clearly, and where the impulse to improve our eyesight has led us. The society of the spectacle may finally be upon us . . . but how much of it do we really see?

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Science

352 pages, Hardcover

Published July 8, 2021

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't read a lot of non-fiction that isn't about planes or spies, but I went to an author talk at my local bookshop and my interest was grabbed enough for me to buy the book (plus, there's a picture of Michael Caine on the cover). It's a fun romp through the innovations and strokes of luck that brought us glasses, looking at public attitudes and fashions alongside advances in technology. The writing style is the kind I once saw disparaged in the Guardian as 'polysyllabic humour', but luckily I like that. My reading was often interrupted as I felt the need to take my own glasses (Hugo Boss) off and stare at them thoughtfully or chew on the earpieces.

[Ryan Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting in parts, just a bit bloated with plenty of detail that has nothing to do with the history of glasses. Easy enough to skim over the padding and get lots of information about glasses though.

[Ian Lea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. Too much not very interesting detail, not enough interesting detail.

[Amita Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part 1, the history of eyeglasses, was alright, though frustratingly Euro-centric. Part 2 is unreadable. Most segments are just talking about famous people who knew or worked with other famous people who may or may not have worn or created characters who wore glasses. Three pages dedicated to inconsistencies regarding a fictional character's eyesight... yet Pol Pot executing anyone who wore glasses gets just a foot note. A very unsatisfying book.

[Liz · Rating 2 out of 5]

The irony of a book about spectacles where you need to be wearing them to read such small print!
Basically, I got bored of it. It had a lot of American history, which didn’t interest me much, and it seemed to drag things out.
A lot of extraneous information is given e.g. the history of Pisa on p30. It could be construed as padding but the book is 300+ pages of very tiny writing, so it can’t be for that reason.
It also needs lots more illustrations, particularly of the earlier types of spectacles.
A disappointment after the good reviews in The Times and Telegraph.

[Dan Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started cold (possibly due to the fact I find medieval history incredibly boring) but warmed up nicely enough in the end.

[Lauren010 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would've been a very interesting book if it had ended 100 pages in, the remaining 2/3 were a slog...