To Soothe a Savage Breast

First edition, first impression.  236pp.  Cherry red publisher's cloth-covered boards, gilt-stamped lettering on the spine. 8vo.  Cloth gently rubbed and rounded on corners and spine ends, mildly marked and softly but unevenly faded.  Previous owner's name neatly inked on front free endpaper, endpapers with a hint of toning, else internally neat, clean, bright and tight.  In its original illustrated dust wrapper, shelf worn, lightly rubbed and chapped at edges, with interior tape repairs. Opinions on the impact of music are varied, from Shakespeare's assertion that the unmusical are not to be trusted, to John Gay's jibe that though music may soothe and civilise a wild beast, it cannot do so for musicians.  Nettel takes 48 of these opinions, chosen from writers and thinkers over three centuries - Ben Johnson, Jane Austen, Charles Darwin - and through them interprets the effect of musicality on the English national character.