The Oxford Book of London - Hardcover

Bailey, Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0192141929 ISBN 13: 9780192141927

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995

Synopsis

All great cities inspire great literature, but no other city has so consistently stimulated the literary imagination as London. Over the centuries writers, poets, historians, artists, and simple observers have chronicled the life and growth of the capital from its humble beginnings to the teeming metropolis it is today. In his sparkling anthology Paul Bailey has captured the essence of its allure for visitors and inhabitants from the Middle Ages to the present day with wit, humour, and pathos. Among the many contributors are those whose evocations of the city have forever fixed it in the popular mind: Charles Dickens's descriptions of fog-bound London streets, the bustle and hustle of the Victorian city; Ben Jonson's satires on London low-life; William Wordsworth rhapsodizing on the view from Westminster Bridge; George Bernard Shaw's archetypal Cockney, Eliza Doolittle. Less well known but equally vivid are descriptions of everyday life for the down and out and the aristocrat, of the museums, theatres, galleries and churches, the restaurants and pubs, the parks and institutions, the topography of London mapped out in unforgettable verse and prose. The great set pieces, Daniel Defoe's description of the Plague year, John Evelyn's and Samuel Pepys's daily records of the Great Fire, are among several other eye-witness accounts of coronations and funerals, unequalled in their immediacy. The bemusement of foreign visitors, the joys and horrors of London buses and the London Underground, the sprawl of the suburbs and the excitement of the City, all add to the dazzling panorama. This book is intended for general anthology buyers, readers interested in the literature and history of London, tourists, fans of Paul Bailey.

About this title

About the Author:

About the Editor: Paul Bailey was born and still lives in London. He is best known as a novelist, author of Gabriel's Lament (1986) and Sugar Cane (1993). He has also written a memoir of his London childhood, An Immaculate Mistake (1990).

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0192141929
• ISBN 13: 9780192141927
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 395