London In The Eighteenth Century: A Great and Monstrous Thing - Rilegato

White, Jerry

Rilegato

ISBN 10: 1847921809 ISBN 13: 9781847921802

Casa editrice: Bodley Head, 2012

Riassunto

London in the eighteenth century was very much a new city, risen from the ashes of the Great Fire. With thousands of homes and many landmark buildings destroyed, it had been brought to the brink. But the following century was a period of vigorous expansion, of scientific and artistic genius, of blossoming reason, civility, elegance and manners. It was also an age of extremes: of starving poverty and exquisite fashion, of joy and despair, of sentiment and cruelty. Society was fractured by geography, politics, religion and history. And everything was complicated by class. As Daniel Defoe put it, London really was a 'great and monstrous Thing'.

Jerry White's tremendous portrait of this turbulent century explores how and to what extent Londoners negotiated and repaired these open wounds. We see them going about their business as bankers or beggars, revelling in an enlarging world of public pleasures, indulging in crimes both great and small - amidst the tightening sinews of power and regulation, and the hesitant beginnings of London democracy.

In the long-awaited finale to his acclaimed history of London over 300 years, Jerry White introduces us to shopkeepers and prostitutes, men and women of fashion and genius, street-robbers and thief-takers, as they play out the astonishing drama of life in eighteenth-century London.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

"An invigorating and thoughtful tour through the metropolis’s most extraordinary and bracing of centuries" (Sunday Times Online)

"Together with Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd, White is one of our great chroniclers of London and this beautifully written, impeccably researched and incredibly generous book is a necessity for those of us who are not yet tired of life" (Frances Wilson Daily Telegraph)

"A dazzling account... White is a reliable and animated guide" (Christopher Sylvester Daily Express)

"Spiralling stories enliven every page of Jerry White’s magnificent, fully annotated, accessible and scholarly book" (Tablet)

"Sober yet incisive in his assessments, comprehensive in his coverage, and gimlet-eyes in his choice of detail, he offers an invigorating yet thoughtful tour through London’s most extraordinary and bracing of centuries" (Andrew Holgate Sunday Times)

Descrizione del libro:

The story of an extraordinary century in the history of London.

Su questa edizione

• Editore: Bodley Head
• Data di pubblicazione: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1847921809
• ISBN 13: 9781847921802
• Rilegatura: Copertina rigida
• Numero di pagine: 704