- Paperback: 848 pages
- Publisher: Anchor
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0385497717
- ISBN-13: 978-0385497718
- Product Dimensions: 15.5 x 4.3 x 23.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1.2 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,137,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The London I Never Knew!,
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Victoria, BC) - See all my reviews (HALL OF FAME) (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Ce commentaire est de: London: The Biography (Paperback)
This is a popular history that everyone should read before venturing into the heart of modern London, truly the capital of the world. With the help of an extraordinary large collection of historical facts about this unique metropolis over the past millenium, Ackroyd weaves a story that takes his reader inside the very lives of Londoners during various periods. His writing is so clear, concise and comprehensive that the reader should have no problems hearing the sounds, smelling the smells, and seeing the motley humanity of an overcrowded city. This is a story that not only shares the fascinating evolution of a village becoming a town becoming a city, but also peels back many of the layers that no longer exist today. We see a London that grew rapidly and chaotically between the Elizabethan and Restoration eras because nobody was willing to develop a building code or plan that regulated size, style and density of housing. The city fathers had no inclination to clean up a city that was increasingly befouled by grime, slime, vermin and pestilence. It grew simply because thousands of people yearned to be there to partake of its food, drink, entertainment, commerce, and crime. Everything about the city was public, rude and raucous. Only when things got so intolerable did nature and technology step in to revitalize and reform it: the Great Plague, the London Fire, introduction of new architecture, the advent of gaslights, the development of an underground sewage system, the building of the underground, and the construction of more bridges. Each of these innovations involved some very special Londoners, whose story Ackroyd very eloquently tells. I was thoroughly entertained by this masterful tome that seems to have the last word on London Town as one incredible expression of a diverse yet rich humanity. Secretly, I wish I could go back in time to relive what Ackroyd so vividly describes in his writing.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Feast,
By
Ce commentaire est de: London: The Biography (Hardcover)
A wonderful book. Don't neglect to read the bibliography, which is a feast in itself.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe it's because,
By andrew pothecary (Tokyo Japan) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: London: The Biography (Hardcover)
To a Londoner in Tokyo this book's celebration of the persistence of London seemed all the more affecting (Tokyo being essentially a temporary and soulesss city). Readable, full of knowledge, facts and quirks, it's a book that can make you realise why you can love London - even when it is being most unlikeable. Here is dirt, earth, fire, humanity (and plague, pestilence, smoke, stone). Expect less about monied London, no TV-style Dickens and more about the staying power of a city grown from ancient roots (still there) via mediaeval filth and real Dickens-esque poverty to a modern rebirth.Londoners may each find the odd exclusion (no mention of the 600-odd sailors who died when their ship sank in the new, Victorian, downstream sewage outlet, for example - one of my favourite stories) and the odd inclusion (which flowers grow in Watford?!) but they are mostly quibbles in such a panoramic vision that reveals far, far more. In fact, the only real irritants - andwhy I only gave it 4 stars - are minor text ones ("And so London is...", "And thus it becomes...", "And this shows London as..." conclusions become repetitive - and on more than one occasion, the conclusion itself is questionable) which sometimes may be a result of the book's construction and later somewhat slack editing as much as of original writing. But the overall impact is in its scope, Ackroyd's dedication to and love of the city, in its detail and authority, and in the thrall it exerts. London was truly the first modern city and so much elsewhere flows from this. (But in writing it as a whole biography - not necessarily chronologically - Ackroyd maybe doesn't allow enough for other cities. In more recent years if you want commerce you could try Hong Kong; crowds, Tokyo; murder, New York etc). But there's no denying what London initiated and what history it encompasses. This is a great - and loving - tribute to a hard and beautiful city. (And to a city that may yet leave that love unrequited.) Hard to say how someone outside London would take it - but then a book titled London: the biography ain't for the lovers of elsewhere.
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