彼得·阿克罗伊德,1949年生于伦敦东阿克顿,英国传记作家、小说家和评论家,著有《莎士比亚传》《牛顿传》《狄更斯传》等五十多部作品,曾获惠特布雷德传记奖和英国皇家文学会威廉•海涅曼奖。《名利场》杂志称誉道:“倘若伦敦能够给自己选一位传记作家,它肯定会选彼得•阿克罗伊德。”
Amazon.co.uk Review
When the eminent novelist and biographer Peter Ackroyd finished writing London: The Biography, he almost immediately had a heart attack, such was the effort of his 800-page work about the "human body" that is this most fascinating of cities. And not just any human body either, but "envisaged in the form of a young man with his arms outstretched in a gesture of liberation... it embodies the energy and exaltation of a city continually beating in great waves of progress and of confidence."
Probably there is no one better placed than Ackroyd--the author of mammoth lives of Dickens and Blake, and novels such as Hawksmoor and Dan Leno and the Lime House Golem which set singular characters against the backdrop of a city constantly shifting in time--to write such a rich, sinewy account of "Infinite London".
Ackroyd's London is no mere chronology. Its chapters take on such varied themes as drinking, sex, childhood, poverty, crime and punishment, sewage, food, pestilence and fire, immigration, maps, theatre and war. We learn that gin was "the demon of London for half a century", and that "it has been estimated that in the 1740s and 1750s there were 17,000 'gin-houses'." Fleet Street was an area known for its "violent delights" where "a 14-year-old boy, only 18 inches high, was to be seen in 1702 at a grocer's shop called the Eagle and Child by Shoe Lane." By the mid 19th century "London had become known as the greatest city on earth." By 1939 "one in five of the British population had become a Londoner."
Though London's chapters vary meaning that it can be dipped into at random, Ackroyd is employing a skilful and continuous theme throughout, which constantly links past and present--the similarities of children's games in Lambeth in 1910 and 1999; the obsession with time--"in 21st-century London time rushes forward and is everywhere apparent", while in 18th-century London the church clock of Newgate "regulated the times of hanging." Above all, he insists that the "dark secret life" of the metropolis is as relevant today as it was in perhaps its most appropriate period, Victorian London.
Again and again Ackroyd returns to the image of London as a living organism, hence his use of the word "biography" in the title. At once awed by and intimate with this "ubiquitous" city, he stresses that "it can be located nowhere in particular... its circumference is everywhere." –-Catherine Taylor
(刊于《凤凰都市》杂志2016年8月号) 为伟大城市立传从来不是一件容易的事。英国伦敦堪称“城市中的城市”,它不仅有光荣的历史,经历过时代的洗礼,也孕育了一整套现代城市建设和管理的思维及方法。这样首屈一指的城市,当今的“全球城市”之一,创造出的文化也是无数人的精...
评分回想起来,买下《伦敦传》的时候心里隐约是有怨气的。 彼时刚刚失去一个心仪的机会,未来不知祸福。又突然得知,半年前自己放弃的道路,竟然在命运的安排下,指向了伦敦。那段时间,每天加班,内心疲惫,却又停不下反思,当初过早的把选择交给别人和命运,是信任使然,偷懒犯病...
评分本来看网上介绍,以为是本精彩纷呈的历史传记。结果买回来一看,傻了眼,通篇是泛泛而谈的空话,从开篇到结束,大量对其他著作中只言片语的引述和作者的感慨,几乎没有任何具体的历史事件或是历史重要建筑哪怕稍有内容的描述。 入主伦敦的三任国王,怎么来的怎么走的,几座世...
评分在不久前的英国脱欧公投中,整个英格兰只有为数不多的几块地方支持留在欧盟,诸如牛津、剑桥和伦敦。对此,一个简单的解释是:那是因为当地人大多本能地意识到自己并不仅仅属于英国,而是更广阔世界的一部分。就像卡尔·波兰尼在《大转型》中谈及早期现代的情形时所感慨的:“...
本站所有内容均为互联网搜索引擎提供的公开搜索信息,本站不存储任何数据与内容,任何内容与数据均与本站无关,如有需要请联系相关搜索引擎包括但不限于百度,google,bing,sogou 等
© 2025 book.quotespace.org All Rights Reserved. 小美书屋 版权所有