{"product_id":"the-madmans-guide-to-stamp-collecting-robert-irwin-9781805337744","title":"The Madman's Guide to Stamp Collecting","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhy do we collect? Is it to rescue objects from oblivion? Is it a kind of desire - or even a kind of madness? In this mosaic of fiction, philosophy, sociology, biography and autobiography, virtuoso thinker Robert Irwin takes us on a wayward journey through the art of collecting, and his own intellectual passions. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on the works of writers including Susan Sontag, Walter Benjamin, Iris Murdoch and Georges Perec, as well as a host of lesser-known geniuses, flaneurs, obsessives and eccentrics, Irwin explores everything from mysticism to nostalgia, classical antiquity to surrealism, dreams to death. We join Thomas De Quincey on a night mail coach, encounter the man who set out to acquire every stamp ever issued and enter the badlands of fakes and forgeries, all in the company of a uniquely brilliant mind. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a book of wonders; of labyrinthine digressions, good humour and a delight in small things. It is a meditation on the stuff of life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Robert Irwin","offers":[{"title":"As New","offer_id":48879871623411,"sku":"9990002977060","price":15.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0634\/4284\/5939\/files\/9781805337744.jpg?v=1777149610","url":"https:\/\/www.harryhartog.com.au\/products\/the-madmans-guide-to-stamp-collecting-robert-irwin-9781805337744","provider":"Harry Hartog Bookseller","version":"1.0","type":"link"}