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Book Categories |
| List of Illustrations | ||
| Chronology | ||
| Introduction: Albion | ||
| Patterns of Eternity | ||
| 1 | The Tree | 3 |
| 2 | The Radiates | 9 |
| Old English | ||
| 3 | Listen! | 17 |
| 4 | Why Is a Raven Like a Writing Desk? | 26 |
| 5 | A Rare and Singular Bede | 32 |
| 6 | The Song of the Past | 41 |
| 7 | The Lives of Others | 45 |
| 8 | A Land of Dreams | 49 |
| 9 | A Note on English Melancholy | 59 |
| 10 | The Rolling Hills | 70 |
| 11 | It Rained All Night | 78 |
| 12 | The Prose of the World | 83 |
| 13 | The First Initials | 90 |
| 14 | Anglo-Saxon Attitudes | 94 |
| Middle English | ||
| 15 | The Alteration | 101 |
| 16 | He Is Not Dead | 112 |
| The Piety of England | ||
| 17 | Faith of Our Fathers | 129 |
| 18 | Old Stone | 136 |
| 19 | Part of the Territory | 142 |
| The Poetry of England | ||
| 20 | A Song and a Dance | 149 |
| 21 | Fathers and Sons | 156 |
| 22 | The Foolish Giant | 170 |
| Solitaries and Recusants | ||
| 23 | The Mysterious Voice | 177 |
| 24 | The Inheritance | 182 |
| Women and Silence | ||
| 25 | The Female Religion | 189 |
| A Renaissance | ||
| 26 | But Newly Translated | 207 |
| 27 | The Italian Connection | 218 |
| Mungrell Tendencies | ||
| 28 | A Short History of Shakespeare | 229 |
| 29 | And Now for Streaky Bacon | 240 |
| Antiquarianism and English History | ||
| 30 | Among the Ruins | 251 |
| 31 | The Conservative Tendency | 263 |
| 32 | A Short History Lesson | 266 |
| In the English Tradition | ||
| 33 | The Song of the Sea | 273 |
| 34 | A Brief Excursion | 279 |
| 35 | A Miniature | 285 |
| 36 | I Saw You, Missis | 290 |
| An English Bible | ||
| 37 | In the Beginning | 303 |
| Cockney Visionaries | ||
| 38 | London Calling | 319 |
| A Wealth of Characters | ||
| 39 | An Essay on the Essay | 331 |
| 40 | The Hogarthian Moment | 334 |
| 41 | Some Eminent Novelists | 342 |
| 42 | A Character Study | 355 |
| 43 | The Fine Art of Biography | 361 |
| Women and Anger | ||
| 44 | Femality and Fiction | 373 |
| Melodrama | ||
| 45 | Blood and Gore | 385 |
| 46 | Ghosts | 389 |
| Philosophy, Mockery and Learning | ||
| 47 | Practice Makes Perfect | 397 |
| 48 | Prolix and Prolific | 409 |
| 49 | Some More Dunces | 416 |
| Green England | ||
| 50 | The Secret Garden | 425 |
| Looking Backwards | ||
| 51 | Forging a Language | 435 |
| 52 | The Romantic Fallacy | 447 |
| 53 | English Music | 454 |
| Epilogue: The Territorial Imperative | 463 | |
| Notes | 465 | |
| Acknowledgements | 487 | |
| Bibliography | 489 | |
| Index | 501 |
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
DE Red
reviewed Albion on December 08, 2012
Albion
Irresponsible, scattershot cultural criticism. The book is vaguely chronological, and composed of discrete essays on a theme. This suits Ackroyd's discursive, wayward style; even when he wanders off on a tangent, he can only go as far as the end of the essay. The level of criticism varies from illuminating and insightful, to the equivalent of jumping up and down in front of a monument and pointing. Even then, he's usually pointing at something worthy of attention.
Here's an example of him at his best. We compare translations of the opening verse of the Bible in Old English.
Her aerest gesceop ece drihten,
helm eallwihta, heofon and eorthan
(Now first the everlasting lord, protector of all things, made heaven and earth)
Then in Middle EnglishIn firme biginning of noght
was hevene and erthe samen wroght
Then in the 14th centuryhow god, that beldes in endlese blyse,
all only with hys word hath wroght,
heuyn on heght for hym and hys,
this erth and all the euer is oght
Then in a medieval playAt my bydding now made be light!
Light is goode, I see in sighte
Then TyndaleIn the beginnying God created heaven and erth.
The erth was voyde and emptye
and darcknesse was upon the depe
& the spirite of God moved upon the water
It's a worthwhile comparison, and allows the language, and the people who spoke it, to grow and change before your imagination.
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Add Albion, Peter Ackroyd follows his acclaimed London: The Biography with a book that once again plumbs the history of England and uncovers the continuities that link past and present. A dazzling, highly original exploration of English culture from its roots , Albion to the inventory that you are selling on WonderClubX
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Add Albion, Peter Ackroyd follows his acclaimed London: The Biography with a book that once again plumbs the history of England and uncovers the continuities that link past and present. A dazzling, highly original exploration of English culture from its roots , Albion to your collection on WonderClub |
