Curiosities of Literature opens a door onto the odd, brilliant, and often comic byways of literary history, where criticism, biography, anecdote, and cultural reflection meet. Introduced here with added memoir and notes by the author's son, it follows the making of a cultivated writer through family influence, patronage, illness, friendship, and the unexpected hospitality of Exeter, while also celebrating the bold success of a work that proved learned miscellany could attract a wide public. Alongside this literary life, the book ranges with wit and skepticism over changing fashions, from wigs and towering head-dresses to the moral contrast between city vanity and country simplicity. It also gathers vivid historical essays and cautionary tales: the rise of gloves as emblems of rank and ceremony, the cruel romance of Lord de Coucy and the Lady du Fayel, the Jesuit intrigue that helped ruin Sigismond of Sweden and Poland, and satirical exposures of relic trade and supposed perpetual lamps. Curious, learned, and sharply observant, it delights in the strange uses of belief, taste, and power. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.