Thread: Shaving & Razors in Literature

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. Be sure and find the part that begins "Then we hunted for a barber-shop."

http://twain.thefreelibrary.com/The-...ts-Abroad/12-1

That was a good one. Mark Twain seemed to have problems w/ barbers and shaving everywhere. Someone posted another account of his in an American barber shop somewhere. This should be a good thread. A couple of Razors in Literature pieces come to mind. The razor work of the orangutan in MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE by Edgar Allan Poe, the account of Captain Ahab having his razors (the best of steel) forged into a harpoon head and giving up shaving till Moby Dick was no more.

Keep 'em coming!

I have a book of mystery stories featuring a detective named Doctor Fell. I don't remember the author's name offhand but one of the stories was titled "The Blind Barber" and a seven day set figured in the story.

Originally Posted by dennisthemenace

That was a good one. Mark Twain seemed to have problems w/ barbers and shaving everywhere. Someone posted another account of his in an American barber shop somewhere. This should be a good thread. A couple of Razors in Literature pieces come to mind. The razor work of the orangutan in MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE by Edgar Allan Poe, the account of Captain Ahab having his razors (the best of steel) forged into a harpoon head and giving up shaving till Moby Dick was no more.

Keep 'em coming!

That someone is me. Here are the links: http://classiclit.about.com/library/...in-barbers.htm and http://lancemannion.typepad.com/lanc...wain_subm.html

William Faulkner also mentions straight razor use fairly often in his novels. In Light in August, the character Joe Christmas shaves with a straight, sometimes stropping it on his boot. Then he uses it to (nearly) decapitate his former lover. In As I Lay Dying, Anse Bundren shaves after his wife dies, but he doesn't do a very good job and cuts himself. And there's also a short story called "That Evening Sun" where a character named Jesus keeps a straight razor on a piece of string around his neck, not to shave with, but as a weapon. Cool.

Charles Dickens also wrote straight razors into several of his stories. So much so, I think he'd fit right in around here. Perhaps though it is just the times and location in which he lived. Here are a few selections:
http://dickens.thefreelibrary.com/Th...b/1-11-2#razor
http://dickens.thefreelibrary.com/Li...rit/2-25#razor
http://dickens.thefreelibrary.com/Hard-Times/1-14#razor
http://dickens.thefreelibrary.com/Gr...ons/1-25#razor
...and here it is in metaphor... http://dickens.thefreelibrary.com/Ta...ties/3-4#razor

P.S. Thanks Kees for the links.

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne -1873

The mansion in Saville Row, though not sumptuous,was exceedingly comfortable. The habits of its occupant were such as to demand but little from the sole domestic, but Phileas Fogg required him to be almost superhumanly prompt and regular. On this very 2d of October he had dismissed James Forster, because that luckless youth had brought him shaving water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit instead of eighty-six; and he was awaiting his successor, who was due at the house between eleven and half-past.

James Joyce: Ulysses. starts with a razor shave.

Ulysses by James Joyce: Episode 1 - Telemachus

In the context of literature, Leviticus 21:5:

"They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body."