author
Eden Warwick
d. 1873
Best known for the wonderfully odd Notes on Noses, this 19th-century writer mixed humor, satire, and pseudo-scientific style in a way that still feels memorable. Behind the pen name was a Birmingham solicitor with strong ties to the city’s literary and educational life.
1 Audiobook
Notes on Noses
by Eden Warwick
About the author
Writing as Eden Warwick, George Jabet (1815–1873) was an English solicitor and man of letters connected with Birmingham’s public, literary, and educational circles. He published several books under that pseudonym, beginning with The Poets' Pleasaunce in 1847.
He is most remembered for Notes on Noses—also known as Nasology—first published in 1848. The book plays with the language of classification and character-reading, turning the era’s fascination with physiognomy and phrenology into something witty, strange, and faintly mischievous.
That mix of earnest tone and comic exaggeration is what keeps his work interesting today. Even when the subject is as unlikely as the shape of a nose, the writing offers a lively glimpse of Victorian tastes, curiosities, and jokes.