Life in a Bustle: Advice to Youth

At the turn of the (last) century, the world was changing rapidly. Trains were faster, cheaper and more comfortable than ever before. The new craze of bicycling had given men and women unprecedented independence. And the modernisation of telegraphy and the recent invention of the telephone meant that information could be exchanged over huge distances in a mere matter of minutes.

And so a frazzled and harried world was ready for the pioneers in thinking, education and imagination to advise and instruct on the perilous "Age of Hurry." Passionate thinkers, committed campaigners, they give invaluable guidance for anyone troubled by the rush and bustle of the early century's information overload.

The books in "Found on the Shelves" have been chosen to give a fascinating insight into the treasures that can be found while browsing in The London Library. Now celebrating its 175th anniversary, with over seventeen miles of shelving and more than a million books, The London Library has become an unrivalled archive of the modes, manners and thoughts of each generation which has helped to form it.

From essays on dieting in the 1860s to instructions for gentlewomen on trout-fishing, from advice on the ill health caused by the "modern" craze of bicycling to travelogues from Norway, they are as readable and relevant today as they were more than a century ago--even if the exhortation to "never drink beer or spirits" has been widely disregarded

Sir Alfred Milner’s busy life as a barrister, a journalist, a private secretary to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, a Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, a High Commissioner for South Africa, a Member of the War Cabinet, a Secretary of State for War, a Fellow of New College, Oxford, a member of The London Library and a writer of history and advice on over-achievement lasted from 1854 to 1925.

Percy Arthur Barnett (1858-1942) grew up in the Jews’ Hospital and Orphan Asylum, Norwood. As well as being a member of The London Library, he was a teacher and educational theorist, and was sent to oversee the reorganization of the education system in Natal following the Boer War.

Claude Joseph Goldsmid Montefiore was a member of the Anglo-Jewish elite who broke with Jewish orthodoxy when he founded Liberal Judaism in Britain. He died ＂disappointed and embittered＂ at the relative failure of Liberal Judaism, which he blamed on the rise of Zionism. After his death in 1938 The London Library received a bequest of all the pamphlets (around 5,000 titles) he had collected in the course of his life.