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Peter Ackroyd: The Collection: Journalism,…
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Peter Ackroyd: The Collection: Journalism, Reviews, Essays, Short Stories, Lectures (edition 2001)

by Peter Ackroyd, Thomas Wright (Editor)

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1702159,329 (3.7)None
A fascinating anthology of journalism, lectures, short stories and miscellaneous writings by the author of London: the Biography; edited by Thomas Wright. During the 1970s and early 1980s Peter Ackroyd wrote countless book reviews and articles for the Spectator on literature, film and a number of social issues. The Collection offers a selection of these incisive and witty pieces. In them, Ackroyd first explored the ideas that he would later develop in his novels and biographies. The articles from various publications in the 1980s and 1990s also throw interesting light on Ackroyd’s books and reveal his attitudes to literature and art. Included here are long pieces on Walter Pater and William Morris, as well as lectures on the Englishness of English literature, Blake and radicalism, and the nature of time. The Collection also contains articles on the work of contemporary painters and much previously unpublished material. The short stories in this volume date from every period of Ackroyd’s writing career; one of them is Ackroyd’s first published work of fiction.… (more)
Member:Stig_Brantley
Title:Peter Ackroyd: The Collection: Journalism, Reviews, Essays, Short Stories, Lectures
Authors:Peter Ackroyd
Other authors:Thomas Wright (Editor)
Info:Random House UK (2001), Edition: 1st, Hardcover, 448 pages
Collections:Your library
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Tags:Lit, Essays, UK

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The Collection by Peter Ackroyd

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Although Peter Ackroyd is perhaps best known as a novelist and biographer, a substantial part of his career has been in journalism. This book collects a large sampling of his reviews and other fugitive pieces. Ackroyd presents the persona of a reviewer who has read everything; he seems to have all the previous writings of any author he reviews, and no subject seems to come up for which he doesn't speak knowledgeably about the background. Yet, only in the earliest pieces does he ever come off as arrogant or show offy, and one comes away convinced of the justness of his opinions. Indeed, his reviews (whether of books, films, or TV) have the panache and energy of fluent improvisations and they make up the most entertaining part of this book. I found the more considered pieces such as the speeches less satisfying. The few short stories, while competent, could probably just as well have been left out. ( )
  sjnorquist | Nov 8, 2013 |
This volume gathers together many of the short writings of critically acclaimed fiction and nonfiction writer Peter Ackroyd (London: The Biography, as well as biographies of Dickens, Blake, and Thomas More) from the past 30 years. It includes reviews and articles written for the London Spectator magazine from the late 1970s and early 1980s, which reveal a young writer trying to establish himself as a literary voice; he criticizes such giants as Nabokov and Auden with caustic and penetrating wit. Later reviews for the Times of London, written after 1981, are less abrasive yet still distinctive and entertaining. The subjects range from literary topics like Harold Bloom's The Western Canon to British television shows. Of particular interest are three of Ackroyd's short stories, which show his skill with fiction.

Jeanette Winterson, The Times

"The best way into this collection is not chronologically or sequentially. Get lost. Wander. Diversions are part of the pleasure."
1 vote antimuzak | May 22, 2007 |
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A fascinating anthology of journalism, lectures, short stories and miscellaneous writings by the author of London: the Biography; edited by Thomas Wright. During the 1970s and early 1980s Peter Ackroyd wrote countless book reviews and articles for the Spectator on literature, film and a number of social issues. The Collection offers a selection of these incisive and witty pieces. In them, Ackroyd first explored the ideas that he would later develop in his novels and biographies. The articles from various publications in the 1980s and 1990s also throw interesting light on Ackroyd’s books and reveal his attitudes to literature and art. Included here are long pieces on Walter Pater and William Morris, as well as lectures on the Englishness of English literature, Blake and radicalism, and the nature of time. The Collection also contains articles on the work of contemporary painters and much previously unpublished material. The short stories in this volume date from every period of Ackroyd’s writing career; one of them is Ackroyd’s first published work of fiction.

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