Peter Ackroyd

Desde su creación en el siglo I, tras la conquista romana de Britania, Londinium ha sido un enclave fundamental para el desarrollo económico, político y cultural de Occidente, auténtico crisol de culturas, y con el paso de los años ha sabido crear una rica mitologia propia que ha marcado profundamente a sus habitantes. Peter Ackroyd, uno de los mayores apasionados de Londres, ha reconstruido magistralmente este proceso y logra transmitir a sus lectores una genuina e intensa pasion por esa metropoli. A traves de un sorprendente recorrido por su historia, que no rehuye los episodios mas negros, los barrios mas peligrosos ni los aspectos mas sombrios y menos conocidos, Ackroyd se sirve de su brillante prosa para arrojar luz sobre una ciudad caracterizada por la bruma y para mostrarnos hasta sus mas peculiares detalles, lo que Unamuno llamaria su intrahistoria. Una autentica obra maestra, cuya originalidad hace imposible clasificarla en los generos al uso. Pero que demuestra, sin duda alguna, que Londres siempre ha sido una ciudad muy viva.

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) se libró de iniciar una incierta vida como actor teatral por culpa de un resfriado, y con ello los lectores ganaron una de las voces más poderosas, originales y talentosas que ha dado la literatura universal. Como pone de manifiesto esta excelente biografia de Peter Ackroyd, la vida del narrador mas emblematico de la era victoriana es en realidad tan interesante y amena como la mejor de sus novelas.Ackroyd consigue desenmascarar al respetable adalid de la rectutud victoriana, de la confortable vida familiar y de las normas de cortesia para mostrarnos a un hombre que arrastro toda su vida un enigmatico sentimiento de perdida, y que ademas de acompañar a Wilkie Collins en turbias escapadas nocturnas, llevo una vida amorosa tan complicada y poco convencional como la de cualquiera de los grandes genios del siglo xx.Sin embargo, todo ello, asi como la constante preocupacion por el dinero o sus enfados por la pirateria de sus libros, no tendria un genuino interes si no fuera por el modo en que los aspectos biograficos inciden en la obra creativa de Dickens, aspecto que Ackroyd se ocupa de analizar de un modo riguroso, trazando al mismo tiempo un esplendido panorama del Londres en que vivio uno de los escritores mas importantes de todos los tiempos.Por fin ha encontrado Charles Dickens un biografo a su altura.En el segundo centenario de Charles Dickens, todos volveremos los ojos hacia un escritor que auna la condicion de clasico con el enorme exito popular (que se pone de manifiesto, por ejemplo, con la continua adaptacion teatral y cinematografica de su obra). La actualidad y vigencia de su legado esta fuera de toda duda, y se ha visto con la reiterada referencia a sus luchas legales con los impresores cuando se han discutido cuestiones de derechos de autor, porque puede decirse que Dickens fue el primer escritor profesional consciente de lo que ello comportaba (por ejemplo, la necesidad de promocionar su obra y percibir una retribucion acorde con su exito).Ademas, probablemente la de Dickens no es solo la vida mas intensa e interesante de entre los escritores victorianos, sino tambien una de las mas apasionantes y peor conocidas del siglo XIX.

Alternating between the eighteenth century, when Nicholas Dyer, assistant to Christopher Wren, builds seven London churches that house a terrible secret, and the 1980s, when London detective Nicholas Hawksmoor is investigating a series of gruesome murders on the sight of certain old churches, this title presents a tale of darkness and shadow.

The Canterbury Tales is a major part of England's literary heritage. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly, ribald farce, these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth-century London. Incorporating every style of medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass a blend of universal human themes. Ackroyd's retelling is a highly readable, prose version in modern English, using expletive and avoiding euphemism, making the Tales much more accessible to a new generation of readers. The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.

Gothic, mysterious, theatrical, fatally flawed, and dazzling, the life of Edgar Allan Poe, one of Americas greatest and most versatile writers, is the ideal subject for Peter Ackroyd. Poe wrote lyrical poetry and macabre psychological melodramas; invented the first fictional detective; and produced pioneering works of science fiction and fantasy. His innovative style, images, and themes had a tremendous impact on European romanticism, symbolism, and surrealism, and continue to influence writers today. In this essential addition to his canon of acclaimed biographies, Peter Ackroyd explores Poes literary accomplishments and legacy against the background of his erratic, dramatic, and sometimes sordid life. Ackroyd chronicles Poes difficult childhood, his bumpy academic and military careers, and his complex relationships with women, including his marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin. He describes Poes much-written-about problems with gambling and alcohol with sympathy and insight, showing their connections to Poes childhood and the trials, as well as the triumphs, of his adult life. Ackroyds thoughtful, perceptive examinations of some of Poes most famous works shed new light on these classics and on the troubled and brilliant genius who created them.

"It was at Oxford that I first met Bysshe. We arrived at our college on the same day; confusing to a mere foreigner, it is called University College. I had seen him from my window and had been struck by his auburn locks." The long-haired poet - ''Mad Shelley'' - and the serious-minded student from Switzerland spark each other''s animated interest in the new philosophy of science which is over-turning long-cherished beliefs. Perhaps there is no God. In which case, where is the divine spark, the soul? Can it be found in the human brain? The heart? The eyes? Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn in the secluded village of Headington, near Oxford. The coroner''s office in Clarendon Street provides corpses - but they have often died of violence and drowning: they are damaged and petrifying. Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery manufactory in Limehouse. And, from Limehouse, makes contact with the Doomesday Men - the resurrectionists. He pays better than any hospital for the bodies of the very recently dead. Even so, perfect specimens are hard to come by ... until that Thames-side dawn when Victor, waiting, wrapped in his greatcoat, on his wooden jetty, hears the splashing of oars and sees in the half-light that slung into the stern of the approaching boat is the corpse of a handsome young man, one hand trailing in the water....

Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn in the village of Headington, near Oxford. The coroner`s office in Clarendon Street provides corpses - but they have often died of violence and drowning: they are damaged and putrifying. Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery manufactury in Limehouse. Victor Frankenstein comienza sus experimentos de anatomia en un granero de la localidad de Headington, cerca de Oxford. El forense de la calle Clarendon le proporciona los cuerpos, pero a menudo han experimentado muertes violentas o se han ahogado: suelen estar dañados y en estado de descomposicion. Victor entonces traslada sus reostatos, ampollas y fluidos ionizados a una fabrica de ceramica abandonada en Limehouse.

Peter Ackroyd at his most magical and magisterial -- a glittering, evocative, fascinating, story-filled portrait of Venice. In this sumptuous vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and beauty, set like a jewel in its glistening lagoon. His account is at once romantic and packed with facts, conjuring up the atmosphere of the canals, bridges and sunlit squares, the churches and the markets, the fiestas and the flowers. He leads us through the history of the city, from the first refugees arrivingin the mists of the lagoon in the fourth century to the rise of a great mercantile state and a trading empire, the wars against Napoleon and the tourist invasions of today. Everything is here: the merchants on the Rialto and the Jews in the ghetto; the mosaics of St Mark's and the glass blowers of Murano; the carnival masks and the sad colonies of lepers; the doges and the destitute and the artists with their passion for colour and form -- Bellini, Titian, Tintoretto, Tiepolo. There are wars and sieges, scandals and seductions, fountains playing in deserted squares and crowds thronging the markets. And there is a dark undertone too, of shadowy corners and dead ends, prisons and punishment. The language and way of thinking of the Venetians sets them aside from the rest of Italy. They are an island people, linked to the sea and to the tides rather than the land. 'The moon rules Venice,' Ackroyd writes: 'It is built on ocean shells and ocean ground; it has the aspect of infinity. It is the floating world... changing and variable and accidental.'This book, like a magic gondola, transports its readers to that sensual, surprising realm. We could have no better guide -- reading Ackroyd's Venice is, in itself, a glorious journey and the perfect holiday.

The English, Peter Ackroyd tells us in this fascinating collection, see more ghosts than any other nation. Each region has its own particular spirits, from the Celtic ghosts of Cornwall to the dobies and boggarts of the north. Some speak and some are silent, some smell of old leather, others of fragrant thyme. From medieval times to today stories have been toldand apparitions seen - ghosts who avenge injustice, souls who long for peace, spooks who just want to have fun.

This comprehensive biography of the great 19th-century novelist combines extensive research and documentation, including much new speculation on the nature of his affair with Ellen Ternan, with imaginative reconstruction of the writer's thoughts.

Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn in the secludedvillage of Headington. But perfect specimens are hard to come by ...until thatThames-side dawn when Victor, waiting, hears the splashing of oars and seesin the half-light that slung into the stern of the approaching boat is thecorpse of a handsome young man.

Famous for its ingenuity and wit, "The Canterbury Tales" is a major part of England's literary heritage. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly, ribald farce, these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth century London and medieval society. Incorporating every style of Medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass the blend of universal human themes and individual personal detail that have fascinated readers for over 600 years. Here they are retold in full by Peter Ackroyd. The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and details why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.

“La novela más exuberante de Ackroyd desde hace años.” Daily Mail Sophia Chrysanthis queda estupefacta cuando un célebre y obsesivo arqueólogo alemán llega en busca de una novia capaz de leer a Homer

So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century As an adult Hitch rigorously controlled the press s portrait of himself drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out

Poet, painter, engraver and visionary, William Blake was a radical spirit fired by genius. This work shows Blake in the context of his period, reveals the true affinities between Blake''s art and his poetry, and recreates the atmosphere of 18th-century London.