Nonperishable goods

Parody. (In Cyclops, whose narrative periodically gives way to wildly parodic commentaries on the action, the first words of each such passage will link to a note with this designation.) "For nonperishable goods bought of Moses Herzogthe said purchaser, his heirs, successors, trustees and assigns of the other part": the chapter's first mocking irruption, one very long sentence, characterizes an unremarkable sale of tea and sugar in the kind of detailed contractual legalese one might encounter in a much heftier financial transaction. This, then, is the first of many examples of stylistic gigantism. It makes a mountain out of a molehill.

John Hunt 2025


First page of the UK Sale of Goods Act of 1893. Source: www.legislation.gov.uk.


The beginning of Part IV of the Act, defining a seller's right to hold a lien on goods that have not been paid for. Source: www.legislation.gov.uk.