Shopping from a catalogue

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

The online catalogue showed a desk in a room without cables, paperwork or any visible need for a desk. I admired the pale wood and ordered it. In my flat, surrounded by the objects that make work possible, it looked less like a new life and more like a useful table. This was not the manufacturer's fault, but the photograph had allowed me to purchase a little more promise than the box contained.

I now measure first and imagine my own room around the product. Reviews help when they describe use rather than simply announce delight. I still enjoy browsing beautiful photographs, but I try to distinguish an object from the atmosphere hired to sell it. The desk has served me well. Its best quality is not that it made the room resemble the catalogue; it is that, after several months, I rarely have to think about the desk at all.

Source B: an original letter in a nineteenth-century voice. This is a period-voice simulation, not an archival document.

Dear Brother, the furniture catalogue has arrived, and I find it both useful and dangerous to an undecided mind. Its drawings allow comparison without journeys to several shops. Yet every chair appears beside a curtain of remarkable elegance, and every cabinet occupies a room whose dimensions are politely withheld. One may begin by choosing a shelf and end by finding one's entire house inadequate.

I have therefore written the measurements of our room upon the order sheet. A handsome cabinet that obstructs the door is not improved by the excellence of its engraving. We should judge the article by its construction, size and service, not by the agreeable company it keeps in the picture. I do not accuse the merchant of promising us the curtains. I merely observe how readily the eye accepts an invitation that the written description never made. Let us buy what will fit, and leave the illustrated household to its fortunate imaginary owners.

Refer to the whole of both sources. Compare the writers’ perspectives on the appeal and limitations of catalogue shopping and how they convey those perspectives. Support your comparison with evidence from both sources.