LONDON WRITING - POCKET ESSENTIALS (Pocket Essentials (Paperback)) - Softcover

Merlin Coverley

Softcover

ISBN 10: 190404848X ISBN 13: 9781904048480

Publisher: POCKET ESSENTIALS, 2005

Synopsis

A guide to the London novel, starting with its origins in the Victorian metropolis and moving through to the present day and the revival of London writing. Includes examination of the Occult Tradition, London Noir, the Disaster Novel and the rise of Psychogeography and features both recognised classics and the work of lost London writers. From Bleak House to Hawksmoor, from Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde to White Chappell Scarlet Tracings, London has continued to generate a series of fantastic visions - Merlin Coverley traces their genesis and influence in this volume.

About this title

Synopsis:

What do writers such as Charles Dickens and Peter Ackroyd, Iain Sinclair and Robert Louis Stevenson have in common? The answer lies in the use these authors make of London as a fictional setting. Yet in these works and in those of other London writers the city is much more than merely a backdrop, instead becoming a character in its own right and creating a sense of place that is both a reflection and a reworking of the city. Here London is presented as a living organism, a huge and mysterious labyrinth, and the source of endless imagination. A whole world is contained by the city and within it the entire spectrum of human experience. From Bleak House to Hawksmoor, from Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde to White Chappell Scarlet Tracings, London has continued to generate a series of fantastic visions. The humorous and the tragic, the grotesque and the bizarre, everything is possible here. In this book, Merlin Coverley examines the major themes in the development of the London novel from its origins in the Victorian metropolis and onward to the present day and the revival of London writing.

On the way he explores the Occult Tradition and London Noir, the Disaster Novel and the rise of Psychogeography, and alongside the recognised classics of the genre he recovers some of those lost London writers whose works have been unjustly neglected.

About the Author:

Merlin Coverley is a freelance writer and bookseller. He is currently completing a PhD in London Writing at Birkbeck College, London. This is his first book for the Pocket Essentials series.

About this edition

• Publisher: POCKET ESSENTIALS
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 190404848X
• ISBN 13: 9781904048480
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160