London Perceived [Hardcover]

V. S. Pritchett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 1974

London of the mind, the heart and the eye is displayed, discussed and dissected in this classic work of 1962 that unites the elegant prose of V.S. Pritchett and the revealing photographs of Evelyn Hofer. Here is a pithy, knowledgeable distillation of the essential London - a panorama of its history, art, literature and daily life. Here is the city that Londoners know, a paraodox of grandeur and grime, the locus of bustling markets and tranquil parks, of palaces and pubs, of docks and railway depots, of the ancient and modern. Great Londoners of the past stalk these pages - Wren, Pepys, Defoe, Hogarth, Dickens and, of course, Samuel Johnson. And here, too, are the faces of the people inhabiting modern London - enigmatic and enduring.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

V.S. Pritchett, who died in 1997, was one of Britain's foremost short story writers, autobiographers and journalists. A selection from his most remarkable work, THE PRITCHETT CENTURY is published by Vintage. Evelyn Hofer was born in 1937 and emigrated from Germany to New York as a young woman. She has worked with writers such as Jan Morris and Mary McCarthy and exhibited frequently in both Europe and the USA. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus (October 31, 1974)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0701120525
• ISBN-13: 978-0701120528
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,902,620 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cultural Archeology At Its Best, May 19, 2003

By 

C. Ebeling "ctlpareader" (PA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: London Perceived (Paperback)

Forty-one years ago, V.S. Pritchett went looking for what makes London itself. He wrote this before McDonald's arrived, just before the Beatles and 007 put it on the world's pop map, just as cranes were setting out the beams for glass and steel skyscrapers. Much has happened in the interim, but what Pritchett found explains not only its past but its future. He makes neat work of reconciling the many ironies in a place that reinvents itself every so often without much of a plan, but which also hangs onto traditions, ways of being and a passion for order. This is a tour of neighborhoods, but also of centuries and the historical events and personages that have contributed to the city's enduring character. It moves seamlessly between the concrete image and the abstract idea. Pritchett's prose is crystalline, his insights spooky at times (he describes those new skyscrapers as having a "smashable impermanence" to them). The photographs by Evelyn Hofer are haunting. There will always be a London. This should be required reading for visitors to that city.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars London Re-thought, February 6, 2010

By 

E. J. Petersen "Avid Reader" (Fresno, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: London Perceived (Paperback)

This is NOT a travel book.

Hofer's photography is iconic, worthy of a special show at the Tate. You will never happen across her vistas walking or driving around London on your own. She has a Dickensian point of view, and an antiquarian sensibility that would scare away the creator of a standard travel brochure.

V.S. Pritchett will not be found in that brochure either. You may have caught him once or twice in the "New Yorker," but not in the "Saturday Evening Post."

His take on London is not so much a perception as it is a meditation. He is in touch with what we all see in London. And his historic perspective is encyclopedic. He evokes the Blitz in the style of an experienced screenwriter. But his real genius lies in his "meditations," his reaction to what he has seen over the years, and in what he imagines his dramatis personae think about it all.

Read it on the plane over the Atlantic, then go see for yourself.