London Perceived
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Book Overview
London of the mind, the heart, and the eye is displayed, discussed and dissected with eloquence and understated wit in this classic collaboration uniting the unfailingly elegant prose of V. S. Pritchett and the consistently revealing photographs of Evelyn Hofer. Here is a pithy and knowledgeable distillation of the London experience -- a panorama of its history, art, literature, and daily life. Here is the city that Londoners know, a paradox of grandeur and grime, the locus of bustling markets and tranquil parks, of the ancient and modern, of palaces and pubs, of docks and railroad depots. As Pritchett observes, "If Paris suggests intelligence, if Rome suggests the world, if New York suggests activity, the word for London is experience. This points to the awful fact that London has been the most powerful and richest capital in the world for several centuries. It has been, until a mere fifteen years ago, the capital of the largest world empire since the Roman and, even now, is the focal point of a vague Commonwealth. It is the capital source of a language now dominant in the world. Great Britain invented the language: London printed it and made it presentable."
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:1567921485
ISBN13:9781567921489
Release Date:June 2002
Publisher:David R. Godine Publisher
Length:214 Pages
Weight:0.95 lbs.
Dimensions:0.7" x 6.3" x 8.9"
Related Subjects
Arts, Music & Photography England Europe General Great Britain History London Photo Essays Photography TravelCustomer Reviews
1 rating
Cultural Archeology At Its Best
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
Forty-one years ago, V.S. Pritchett went looking for what makes London itself. He wrote this before McDonald's arrived, just before the Beatles and 007 put it on the world's pop map, just as cranes were setting out the beams for glass and steel skyscrapers. Much has happened in the interim, but what Pritchett found explains not only its past but its future. He makes neat work of reconciling the many ironies in a place that reinvents itself every so often without much of a plan, but which also hangs onto traditions, ways of being and a passion for order. This is a tour of neighborhoods, but also of centuries and the historical events and personages that have contributed to the city's enduring character. It moves seamlessly between the concrete image and the abstract idea. Pritchett's prose is crystalline, his insights spooky at times (he describes those new skyscrapers as having a "smashable impermanence" to them). The photographs by Evelyn Hofer are haunting. There will always be a London. This should be required reading for visitors to that city.
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