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Comment: Condition: Very good condition., Clean - No marks of any kind. / Binding: Paperback / Publisher: Anchor / Pub. Date: 2003-04-08 Attributes: Book 801pp / Illustrations: B&W and Color Photographs Stock#: Z992183986 () * * *This item qualifies for FREE SHIPPING and Amazon Prime programs! * * *

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London: A Biography Paperback – April 8, 2003

by Peter Ackroyd (Author)

84 customer reviews

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Here are two thousand years of London’s history and folklore, its chroniclers and criminals and plain citizens, its food and drink and countless pleasures. Blackfriar’s and Charing Cross, Paddington and Bedlam. Westminster Abbey and St. Martin in the Fields. Cockneys and vagrants. Immigrants, peasants, and punks. The Plague, the Great Fire, the Blitz. London at all times of day and night, and in all kinds of weather. In well-chosen anecdotes, keen observations, and the words of hundreds of its citizens and visitors, Ackroyd reveals the ingenuity and grit and vitality of London. Through a unique thematic tour of the physical city and its inimitable soul, the city comes alive.

London: A Biography

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Product Details

Paperback: 848 pages
Publisher: Anchor (April 8, 2003)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0385497717
ISBN-13: 978-0385497718
Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1.8 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (84 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #84,713 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #98 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > European > British & Irish
- #1241 in Books > Literature & Fiction > British & Irish

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Customer Reviews

3.9 out of 5 stars

5 star		39%
4 star		33%
3 star		12%
2 star		10%
1 star		6%

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

130 of 134 people found the following review helpful

A Remarkable Work

By D. W. Casey on December 4, 2001

Format: Hardcover

Everyone can tell stories about their hometown and anecdotes about the place they grew up, some of which are true, some of which are dubious, and some of which are outright fabrications. I can tell you stories about my small hometown in Massachusetts which can alternately put you to sleep or amuse you.
Imagine someone telling you stories about London; stories which over 2000 years have been embellished and polished to the point where they might be considered mythology. Consider these stories ranging over the whole course of the city's life, and you have some idea of what this book is like. It is a breathtaking book, where anecdotes of Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, The Victorian Era, and today are all seamlessly mixed in a wonderful stew. I cannot imagine the amount of scholarship that went into this work; I rather think that Mr. Ackroyd is some type of immortal who has experienced these stories and anecdotes of London firsthand.
This is a truly wonderful book to give to any Anglophile friends you may have; it is history at its compelling best, long on anecdote and short on drudgery. It is also written extremely well; there is never a jarring turn of phrase in the book. Well worth the hardbound price, this is the perfect Christmas present to anyone you know who has lived in London, been to London, or who loves history.

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96 of 108 people found the following review helpful

A magnificent achievement. However ...

By Mr. Joe TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE VOICE on November 28, 2002

Format: Hardcover

As evidenced by its 779 narrative pages and its 13 pages of sources, LONDON: THE BIOGRAPHY is a prodigious accomplishment by author and city resident Peter Ackroyd. And it did take me five weeks to read it.

Since I'd rather be in London than anywhere else, especially the Southern California I'm in, I began this volume with giddy anticipation. In his narrative of the city from pre-Roman times to the present, Ackroyd touches on the history of many of its diverse aspects: rivers, commerce, architecture, transport, theaters, street ballads, parks, food, weather, maps, neighborhoods, nationalities, fires, fog, pestilences, the effects of the Blitz, public lighting, law enforcement, sanitation and clubs. He also doesn't neglect London's unsavory side: alcoholism, gambling, blood sports, prisons, crime, the homeless, poverty, beggars, mob violence, racism, child labor, prostitution, overcrowding, the insane, slums, air and water pollution, and general squalor and filth. Because the author seemed (to me) so preoccupied with the latter dreary group, I suspect he's a closet social reformer.

LONDON isn't a riveting read. Surprisingly, I could put it down for such jolly pursuits as taking out the trash and cleaning the cats' litter box. Perhaps it's because the author's style, never leavened by any humor, becomes at times almost ponderous. For instance, in the chapter "How Many Miles to Babylon?", he comments:

"Yet there is one more salient aspect to this continual analogy of London with ancient civilisations: it is the fear, or hope, or expectation that this great imperial capital will in its turn fall into ruin.Read more ›

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31 of 34 people found the following review helpful

Like the City, an organic work in progress

By D. Myers on November 16, 2004

Format: Paperback

As far as I am concerned, you can have Paris in the springtime. Give me London in the rain.

Ackroyd's book shares many characteristics with its namesake - it is crowded, organic, chaotic, and full of life. It also shares many of the City's faults - it's hard sometimes to find what you are looking for, and you can look in vain for any reason behind the juxtapositions of different cultural artifacts. Nevertheless, anyone who has spent more than the obligatory few days in the obligatory tourist sites will recognize the city from Ackroyd's prose.

One may complain that Ackroyd lingers too much on London's history of crime, social unrest, and dirt. Well, what do you expect of a city that boasts having had the "Great Stink" of 1858? Casual travelers, people who are looking for a simplistic history to read while in line for Madame Tussaud's, and anyone who desires a Disney-fied, Mary Poppins fantasy will be unhappy with this book.

But if you want to know what London _feels_ like, this book comes closer than anything else I have read to making me feel like I do when I am there. There is no city better for aimless wandering, stumbling through alleys, exploring the Underground, and observing the small details. It is a world-city grown pell-mell by greed, lust and need, with beauty in unexpected places and quiet rarer than gold, and more precious. In short, it is life. And, as Samuel Johnson famously said, "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."

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42 of 48 people found the following review helpful

Social history as seen by a literary historian

By D. Cloyce Smith on April 18, 2004

Format: Hardcover

Impressive in its scope, astonishing in its erudition, overwhelming in its detail, "London" contains a smorgasbord of information from an awe-inspiring number of sources. Unlike most histories (much less biographies), most of the material in "London" is organized by theme; only three "events"--the Great Plague of 1665, the Great Fire of 1666, and the Blitz--are examined in depth. Chapters detail architecture, neighborhoods, markets, work, entertainment, food, drink, smells, crime, punishment, madness, sickness, and more. Critics have noted that the reader will find few aristocrats or statesmen among the pages of this book; Ackroyd's focus is on the streets, the habitats, the commoners, and the everyday life of London. Civil war and uprisings, kings and queens, mayors and parliaments are mentioned only in passing.
Yet this is certainly no treatise inspired the Annales school. Instead, "London" is a social history written by a novelist and literary historian, one who is more likely to quote Pepys, Boswell, Dickens, or Orwell than to invoke Cromwell, Pitt, Disraeli, or Churchill. The author favors fiction, diaries, essays, and similar remnants of the literati over court documents, tax records, and other types of evidence examined by English social historians such as Lawrence Stone or E. P. Thompson.
While Ackroyd excels in compilation, he neglects any attempt at true synthesis. The book's overwhelming erudition, while admirable, is sometimes oppressive, and there seems to be little thought given to the structure of the book. One could toss most of its 79 chapters into the air and read them in the order in which they fall to the ground, with little loss in comprehension.Read more ›

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

A great city gets a great bio

A great book that's a lot of fun. Ackroyd knows how to find and tell a story.

Published 4 months ago by Mark Bourrie

Well written but mind-numbing statistics. Way, way, too much obfuscating details. A hard
book to read and unrewarding after you have heroically reached the end. Read more

Published 5 months ago by Robert W. Benson

Little difficult to really get into as I was expecting ...

Little difficult to really get into as I was expecting more of a history of the city as opposed to various anecdotes with much contextual setting.

Published 6 months ago by Raymond Joabar

many unknown aspects revealed of a unique world city.

An informative book that relates different happenings and places that any reader would not find in the history of any othr city. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Arthur Rubinoff

a lot of historical information, but everything is on line now unless you collect books for a living.

Published 11 months ago by gordi

The biggest and best

Awesome, hyper-detailed and almost endlessly anecdotal-interesting, this is one of the finer books about London. Arranged in themes. Well worth the slog. Read more

Published 11 months ago by Rino Breebaart

like eating peanuts for a uk nut!

Published 12 months ago by slike

best book i have read in quite some time

fabulous writer, great history of REAL people...street people. we have had enough of royalty....this book is about street vendors, crime, child labor, lack of law enforcement, all... Read more

Published 12 months ago by barney

It is a very detailed (in the beginning too detailed) ...

It is a very detailed (in the beginning too detailed) story of London. You get even moe eager to visit and see for Yourself. Read more

Published 15 months ago by Bent J. Knudegaard

As expected

Published 16 months ago by robert herford

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