Miniature books eighteenth-century novels Tom Thumb weddings tall tales & objects of tourism & nostalgia: this diverse group of cultural forms is the subject of On Longing " a fascinating analysis of the ways in which everyday objects are narrated to animate or realize certain versions of the world. Originally published in 1984 (Johns Hopkins University Press) & now available in paperback for the first time this highly original book draws on insights from semiotics & from psychoanalytic feminist & marxist criticism. Addressing the relations of language to experience the body to scale & narratives to objects Susan Stewart looks at the "miniature" as a metaphor for interiority & at the "gigantic" as an exaggeration of aspects of the exterior. In the final part of her essay Stewart examines the ways in which the "souvenir" & the "collection" are objects mediating experience in time & space."