The Gaol: The Story of Newgate - London's most notorious prison - Rilegato

Grovier, Kelly

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0719561329 ISBN 13: 9780719561320

Casa editrice: John Murray Publishers Ltd, 2008

Riassunto

For over 800 years Newgate was the grimy axle around which British society slowly twisted. This is where such legendary outlaws as Robin Hood and Captain Kidd met their fates, where the rapier-wielding playwrights Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe sharpened their quills, and where flamboyant highwaymen like Claude Duval and James Maclaine made legions of women swoon. While London's theatres came and went, the gaol endured as London's unofficial stage. From the Peasants Revolt to the Great Fire, it was at Newgate that Englands greatest dramas unfolded. By piecing together the lives of forgotten figures as well as re-examining the prison's links with more famous individuals, from Dick Whittington to Charles Dickens, this thrilling history goes in search of a ghostly place, erased by time, which has inspired more poems and plays, paintings and novels, than any other structure in British history.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

'A story of eyewatering misery . . . In a clear readable style that takes the reader at a pleasantly trotting pace through the centuries of oppression and inhumanity' (Evening Standard)

An enjoyable book (Morning Star)

'Grovier's book brings together the lives of forgotten figures and re-examines the prison's links with more famous individuals' (Publishing News)

'Reading Grovier reminds us of the desperation, corruption and crime that swirled around Newgate' (Sue Baker, Publishing News)

'Grovier introduces a gallery of rogues and tells their fates with relish' (Daily Mail)

'Gripping . . . Grovier's treatment of the material organisation of the place is excellent . . . Newgate's role in the evolution of London, in the creation of crime in the public imagination, in the development of the concept of the prison, is unmatched, and Grovier relates it compellingly' (Daily Telegraph)

A terrific read (Scotsman)

'The author has a keen eye for the grisly detail . . . In many ways The Gaol is an upmarket extension of The Newgate Calender, the blood-and-guts, five-volume blockbuster full of all the gory details, that was on every 18th Century bookshelf' (Mail on Sunday)

'Beguiling lyricism . . . He is interested in Newgate's place in the collective psyche, 'a more intimate story' than historians have managed . . . vividly evoked' (Sunday Telegraph)

'Grovier revels in gory tales and colourful characters linked to the place' (Sunday Telegraph)

Descrizione del libro:

The extraordinary human story of London's most infamous prison

Su questa edizione

• Editore: John Murray Publishers Ltd
• Data di pubblicazione: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0719561329
• ISBN 13: 9780719561320
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 352