Dickens, by Peter Ackroyd.
A big, thick brick of a book, it was a little loose in its
boards when I bought it and has now become detached from the spine in several
places. I could use a new copy. My attention was drawn to it by the special
“The Mystery of Charles Dickens”, written by Ackroyd and performed by Simon
Callow. A wonderful biography, accurate, insightful, that reads like an
adventure, because Dickens life was an adventure. Does not seek to plaster over
Dickens flaws, but goes far to explaining them without excusing them, and
displays his life and times for the period of extremes it was. Ackroyd has
written fiction, be he excels in history. Illustrations. I find with some
surprise that this copy comes from the library of Louis Bittrich, my fellow
actor in “The Death and Life of Sneaky Fitch, and father of my schoolmate
Stephen Bittrich.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Biography. Hardback.
London: The Biography, by Peter Ackroyd.
London not only has a particular character, it IS a
character, and Ackroyd sets out to show its peculiar history and aspects, by
reviewing what its inhabitants and intimates have said about it through the
ages and grouping these observations together and showing that the reports make
up a ‘composite picture’ like a police artist. [NB: this is my own metaphor.] A
fascinating tour through history and literature. Illustrations.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: History. Hardback.
Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination, by Peter
Ackroyd.
“With his characteristic enthusiasm and erudition, Peter
Ackroyd follows his acclaimed London: A Biography with an inspired
look into the heart and the history of the English imagination. To tell the
story of its evolution, Ackroyd ranges across literature and painting,
philosophy and science, architecture and music, from Anglo-Saxon times to the
twentieth century. Considering what is most English about artists as diverse as
Chaucer, William Hogarth, Benjamin Britten and Virginia Woolf, Ackroyd
identifies a host of sometimes contradictory elements: pragmatism and whimsy,
blood and gore, a passion for the past, a delight in eccentricity, and much
more. A brilliant, engaging and often surprising narrative, Albion reveals
the manifold nature of English genius.” -Penguin Review. Which pretty much says
it all, more concisely than I could. I would add that it is a cracking good
read for a student both of English and the Imagination. Such as myself.
Illustrations.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Literary History. Hardback.
The Victorians, by A. N. Wilson.
Wilson’s analysis of 19th Century English history
under the reign of Queen Victoria, with the deepening imperial inroads into
Africa and Asia, developing scientific advances, and clash between religion and
atheism, and how these all interacted together to form into a powerful but
tenuous peak of British rule. He shows how the force of several dominating
persons of influence went to shape not only that time but the centuries to
follow.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: History. Britain. Hardcover.
After the Victorians: The Decline of Britain in the World, by
A. N. Wilson.
A follow up to his book “The Victorians”, which I need to
get. Wilson is one of those writers who know how to weave telling details into
a convincing narrative. History is not simply a list of facts about inevitable
forces, it is also a story made by people imposing their will and desires on
the world around them. Anyway, a skillful, entertaining, thorough-going summation
of Britain in the first fifty or so years of the 20th Century. I got
this copy at a library sale in New Braunfels that John and Amy took me to.
Illustrations.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: History. Britain. Softcover.
Shakespeare: The Biography, by Peter Ackroyd.
“Drawing on an exceptional combination of skills as literary
biographer, novelist, and chronicler of London history, Peter Ackroyd surely
re-creates the world that shaped Shakespeare–and brings the playwright himself
into unusually vivid focus. With characteristic narrative panache, Ackroyd
immerses us in sixteenth-century Stratford and the rural landscape–the
industry, the animals, even the flowers–that would appear in Shakespeare’s
plays. He takes us through Shakespeare’s London neighborhood and the fertile,
competitive theater world where he worked as actor and writer. He shows us
Shakespeare as a businessman, and as a constant reviser of his writing. In
joining these intimate details with profound intuitions about the playwright
and his work, Ackroyd has produced an altogether engaging masterpiece.”
-Penguin blurb. I need only add my own accolades to the work. If you must read
only one biography of Shakespeare and his times, this is it. Illustrations.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Biography. History. Softcover.
Chaucer, by Peter Ackroyd.
A part of a “Brief Lives” series [meaning shorter accounts,
not shorter life spans], it is not quite as monumental as his “Shakespeare”,
but still manages to put all that is known about Chaucer into his historical
context with almost novelistic skill. Illustrations.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Biography. History. Softcover.
The Life and Times of Chaucer, by John Gardner.
You would think that with the combo of Middle English subject
and John Gardner this would be right in my wheelhouse, but no. I’ve never been
able to get into this book, but had to have it because, hey, it’s Gardner.
Somewhat marred by this controversy: “In 1977, Gardner published The
Life and Times of Chaucer. In a review in the October 1977 issue of Speculum, Sumner J. Ferris pointed to several
passages that were allegedly lifted either in whole or in part from work by
other authors without proper citation. Ferris charitably suggested that Gardner
had published the book too hastily, but on April 10, 1978, reviewer Peter Prescott, writing in Newsweek, cited the Speculum article
and accused Gardner of plagiarism, a claim that Gardner met "with
a sigh." – Wikipedia.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary.
History. Softcover.
Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily
Dickinson, by Camille Paglia.
“Subversion requires limits to violate.” -Camille Paglia. Do
I agree with all her readings into works of art and literature? No. But she
does present a persuasive and entertaining case for her thesis, and much of
interest along the way. I am as much impressed with her persona as with her
theories about personae; it is like listening to an immensely learned, totally
convinced, personally appealing, highly entertaining enthusiast laying out
their favorite subject. I am just not sure if she has examined the evidence and
found a key that fits all the locks or has chosen a key that she is forcing
into all the doors. Illustrations.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary Criticism. Softcover.
On Moral Fiction, by John Gardner.
Caused quite a stir when it came out in the late-70’s;
morality was not a subject that appealed to the cynical world of the
post-Kennedy era, especially to the writers who were holding sway then. “In
this work, Gardner attacks what he sees as contemporary literature's lack
of morality, which he calls the highest purpose of
art and which he defines in the book. According to Gardner, morality is not an
arbitrary social
construct, but an
eternal truth, taking on different forms but not essentially changing through
the ages. He says that moral fiction "attempts to test human values, not
for the purpose of preaching or peddling a particular ideology, but in a truly
honest and open-minded effort to find out which best promotes human
fulfillment." – Wikipedia. I remember the book being a topic of discussion
among us folks in the Writer’s Roundtable, and later in college. Haven’t
re-read it in quite a while.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Literary Criticism. Softcover.
Writers Dreaming, Edited and with an Introduction by Naomi
Epel.
“Twenty-six writers talk about their dreams and the creative
process.” An anthology of sorts. A subject that has fascinated me for years; so
many books start with dreams, from Frankenstein to Stuart Little. My own book began
with a dream, and a story I could never have made with my waking mind. Mike had
this book, then John, then me.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Writing/Psychology. Softcover.
What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, by Daniel Poole.
“From Fox Hunting to Whist – the Facts of Daily Life in 19th-Century
England.” A delightful browser covering life in Victorian times, and an
invaluable companion to readers of books of that period. Illustrated, with a
glossary of terms. Delightful!
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary History. Softcover.
Dickens’ Fur Coat and Charlotte’s Unanswered Letters, by
Daniel Poole.
“The Rows and Romances of England’s Great Victorian
Novelists.” “Explores the publicity stunts, rivalries, rows, and mayhem
perpetrated by famous Victorian authors.” – Amazon. Another good browser, and
only $1 at Half-Price.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary History. Softcover.
Where Queen Elizabeth Slept and What the Butler Saw, by David
N. Durant.
“A Treasury of Historical Terms from the Sixteenth Century to
the Present.” A grand literary guide and browser, and helpful to the reader of
older literature. I love this kind of book; it’s full of nuggets you would
otherwise have to search far and wide to locate.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary History. Hardback.
The Genius of Writers, by Jack Hodges.
“A Treasury of Facts, Anecdotes, and Comparisons”, selected
and edited by Hodges into various subjects and showing what writers have said
about them. Fascinating, full of snappy bits, another browser through the
fields of literature, which I love.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary History. Hardback.
Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Essays and addresses, this is an ex-library book from SHS
that I vaguely remember reading (or did I read it in the public library?). A
gadfly, a questioner, an exposer of inconsistencies of thought, without really
having an alternate plan except to point them out and ask if there is not a
more honest response to be had, Vonnegut wrote in a plain style and laid down
facts like bricks to make his observations. Always worth listening to, even if
not agreeing totally with his opinions.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Essays. Hardback.
An Irreverent and Thoroughly Incomplete Social History of
Almost Everything, by Frank Muir.
I first read a copy of this book in college and bought this
edition as soon as I found it. Another great browser, perhaps the first of its
kind I ever encountered, this one telling all the BAD things writers have ever
had to say about a subject, from other authors to food to music to art and so
on. Basically, a history illuminated with quotes from contemporary writers to
enlighten and amuse.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Humor. History. Softcover.
On Writers and Writing, by John Gardner.
A posthumous collection of his essays and criticisms,
including his review of “The Silmarillion” which may be the earliest thing I
ever read by him, in one of Fleming’s Times Literary Reviews (he gave me the
clipping of the article; I still have it). I can’t say I’ve read the whole
book.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary Criticism. Essays. Hardback.
Conversations with John Gardner, Edited by Allan Chavkin.
Interviews and dialogues with the author. I have a strange,
tenuous connection with the book, as the editor thanks SWTSU and Lisa Lunstedt,
a girl I knew in college and from whom I almost bought a rat. I gormlessly
wandered into an on-campus sorority in search of her and her rodents. Oh, yes,
the book. Entertaining and enlightening, yadda, yadda, yadda …
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: Literary. Conversations. Softcover.
Alien Dawn, by Colin Wilson
“An investigation into the Contact Experience.” Wilson brings
his critical abilities to bear on the UFO phenomenon, especially on the people
who claim to have been abducted. “In
this classic book on UFOs, bestselling author Colin Wilson, a renowned
authority on the paranormal, examines the evidence and develops a definitive
theory of the alien contact phenomenon. Alien Dawn covers Wilson's investigation into documented evidence
of strange and unexplained phenomena, including UFOs, poltergeists, ancient
folklore, time slips, out-of-body experiences, mystical awareness, and psychic
travel to other worlds. The result: a fascinating and encyclopedic study of the
complex nature of reality. This is one of the most comprehensive explorations
of the subject undertaken, with conclusions sure to shock the reader, whether
believer or skeptic.” – Amazon Review. The conclusion is that these beings,
whatever they are, are on a higher level of consciousness, and their purpose,
whatever sort of stories they tell contactees, is to smite us into a greater
state of awareness.
Ranking: Keeper.
File Code: High Weirdness. Hardback.
Danse Macabre, by Stephen King.
This book (1981) was produced fairly early in King’s career,
and is an exploration of horror, its tropes and history and psychological
meaning, in literature and movies and life. It basically sets out to show that
this type of art is not just for the afternoon movie creepshow but has roots
deep in the human mind and performs a basic human psychological function that
it is unwise to ignore. It is fable and fantasy and a look at the Jungian
shadow-self that allows us insight and information into our own souls. Here is
one of the great defenses of Imaginative Literature, and I liked it so much I
had to get my own copy, even though it was already in John’s extensive King
collection. The cover is getting pretty worn out; it’s been well-read.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Horror. Literary History. Hardback.
A Dream of Dracula, by Leonard Wolf.
“In Search of the Living Dead.” Thousands of years after the
paperback copy, I found this book at Half-Price. See what I had to say about it
there in that entry.
Ranking: Essential.
File Code: Literary History. Legend. Hardback.
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