Writing London: The Trace of the Urban Text from Blake to Dickens

by J. Wolfreys

Overview

Beginning with an introductory survey of the variety of literary representations and responses to the city, and the relations between self and urban space, Writing London follows the shaping of the urban consciousness from William Blake to Charles Dickens and through readings of Shelley, Barbauld, Byron, DeQuincy, Engels and Wordsworth. It concludes with an afterword which, in developing insights into the relationship between writing and the city, questions the heritage industry's reinvention of London, while arguing for a new understanding of the urban spirit.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312214524
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	08/10/1998
Edition description:	1998
Pages:	249
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

Julian Wolfreys has taught at the Universities of Luton and Dundee.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Imagining London or, Rainbird was Sure of It
• Blake's London: London's Blake: An Introduction to the Spirit of London or, On the Way to Apocalypse
• "Half Lost in Night:" Envisioning London or, romantic Poetry's Capital Snapshots
• Citephobia : The Anxiety of Representation or, Fear and Loathing in London: Thomas DeQuincey, Friedrich Engels, and William Wordsworth
• Dickensian Architectures or, The City and The Ineffable
• Bibliography
• Index

Editorial Reviews

'Writing London makes a vital contribution to a growing field of interest in urban literature.' - Jennifer Davis Michael, The Wadsworth Circle

'Writing London is a brilliant book...Writing London conveys an excitement endowed by passion and intellectual risk, and more such studies of the nineteenth century would be welcome.' - Isobel Armstrong, Times Literary Supplement

'Writing London is an absorbing and lively study, which can usefully be added to the great flood of literature concerning the city.' - Peter Ackroyd, Times

From the Publisher