- Unknown Binding
- Publisher: Chatto & Windus; First Edition edition (2002)
- ASIN: B002KDU3N4
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Ackroyd has achieved wide popular appeal with his literate brand of historical fiction so you would expect this to be a lively, readable and interesting run through this huge subject -and it is. The short chapters, each neatly encapsulating an often weighty idea, make it a real page turner packed with fascinating observations. Unfortunately, scholarly it is not. Ackroyd makes great claims for the seamless progression of cultural motifs unique to the English, and yet never demonstrates they ARE unique by comparisons with other countries. Are we, for example, to believe the study of German history over the centuries has been a disspasionate scholarly exercise that does not seek to construct national myth and identity, as have the English? Of course not! He is also very selective with his evidence: often a single 20th century example is cited to demonstrate that a certain preoccupation of the Saxon mind is alive and well. Perhaps much of what he says on literature is valid despite the rather hurried approach and he clearly has great passion for the subject. He falls down, however, on painting and music which are given scarce coverage while the architecture sections are full of inaccuracies and misconceptions (possibly a result of the very superficial reading the bibliography suggests) as is his one chapter on garden design. Having said all this, its immensely enjoyable and gives much food for thought.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
In this book, Ackroyd seeks to do something very ambitious - namely, to identify the nature of the English artistic sensibility. He is not trying to define the 'Englishness' of English art (we are, as he says, a hybrid culture after all). Ackroyd is more interested in exploring the idea of the 'genius loci' (the spirit of place). Accordingly, artistic patterns and repetitions recur, sometimes centuries apart, with no obvious or conscious link to explain the parallels. This is terrain, of course, that Ackroyd has already charted to haunting effect in his novel, Hawksmoor.
But is it reasonable to talk about distinctively English imaginative traits? Ackroyd thinks so, and enumerates some of them: a love of antiquity; a tendency to melancholy; a habit of translating and borrowing from abroad; an appetite for heterogeneity and variety; a love of flat and intricate surface design; a preference for the practical over the theoretical; a distrust of intellectualism; and so on.
Albion doesn't pretend to be a work of scholarship. As with Shakespeare: the Biography, the book provides just so many footnotes as are needed to lend his ideas substance. In any case, what Ackroyd is good at here is making observations and connections, rather than providing absolute, forensic proof. Occasionally, his arguments aren't at all convincing - the idea that the English love of miniature painting might be explained by the fact that 'those who live on a small island take a delight in small things' is flimsy. But in making the link between the illuminators of medieval manuscripts, Nicholas Hillyard and the C17 school of limners, Ackroyd is absorbing. As elsewhere in his work, we sense a deep affinity with those he writes about. After praising the philosopher John Locke's gift of finding a homely metaphor to help make his point and avoid 'so much useless dispute and noise in the world' (from 'An Essay on Understanding'), Ackroyd pulls an equally down to earth comparison out of the hat: Locke's dislike of noise and dispute is 'the philosophical equivalent of not making a scene in a restaurant' - an 'innately English' dislike.
Eclectic and speculative, rather than rigorous or academic, the real virtue of Albion is its capacity to connect across genres as well as time. It is a thought-provoking exploration of the English artistic impulse.
But is it reasonable to talk about distinctively English imaginative traits? Ackroyd thinks so, and enumerates some of them: a love of antiquity; a tendency to melancholy; a habit of translating and borrowing from abroad; an appetite for heterogeneity and variety; a love of flat and intricate surface design; a preference for the practical over the theoretical; a distrust of intellectualism; and so on.
Albion doesn't pretend to be a work of scholarship. As with Shakespeare: the Biography, the book provides just so many footnotes as are needed to lend his ideas substance. In any case, what Ackroyd is good at here is making observations and connections, rather than providing absolute, forensic proof. Occasionally, his arguments aren't at all convincing - the idea that the English love of miniature painting might be explained by the fact that 'those who live on a small island take a delight in small things' is flimsy. But in making the link between the illuminators of medieval manuscripts, Nicholas Hillyard and the C17 school of limners, Ackroyd is absorbing. As elsewhere in his work, we sense a deep affinity with those he writes about. After praising the philosopher John Locke's gift of finding a homely metaphor to help make his point and avoid 'so much useless dispute and noise in the world' (from 'An Essay on Understanding'), Ackroyd pulls an equally down to earth comparison out of the hat: Locke's dislike of noise and dispute is 'the philosophical equivalent of not making a scene in a restaurant' - an 'innately English' dislike.
Eclectic and speculative, rather than rigorous or academic, the real virtue of Albion is its capacity to connect across genres as well as time. It is a thought-provoking exploration of the English artistic impulse.
19 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I'm not much of areader of pop history but I love Peter Ackroyd. He is a novelist who writes like a history professor and an historian who writes like a novelist. I must admit I mostly prefer his non-fiction. I first came across him when he was recommending Michael Moorcock's work in a review in the Sunday Times and it's odd how the two men resonate so closely.
Moorcock wrote about Albion and Doctor Dee, British musical hall and Mother London and all these themes are taken up by Ackroyd, whose sympathy with the great visionaries (and Moorcock is without doubt one of the great English visionaries) is well known. After reading Albion I found myself reaching for Moorcock's Gloriana again (this is set in a Platonic London, capital of Albion) and knowing the two men to be friends was fascinated to see how one takes a particular ball and runs with it, throwing it back to the other. If you enjoyed Albion, which is a fanciful, fantastic history of Old England, you'll certainly love Gloriana and vice versa. Yes, there is a modern school of English letters and Ackroyd, Iain Sinclair, Alan Wall,
M.J.Harrison and a few others are at the core of it. If you don't believe me, try them for yourself!
Moorcock wrote about Albion and Doctor Dee, British musical hall and Mother London and all these themes are taken up by Ackroyd, whose sympathy with the great visionaries (and Moorcock is without doubt one of the great English visionaries) is well known. After reading Albion I found myself reaching for Moorcock's Gloriana again (this is set in a Platonic London, capital of Albion) and knowing the two men to be friends was fascinated to see how one takes a particular ball and runs with it, throwing it back to the other. If you enjoyed Albion, which is a fanciful, fantastic history of Old England, you'll certainly love Gloriana and vice versa. Yes, there is a modern school of English letters and Ackroyd, Iain Sinclair, Alan Wall,
M.J.Harrison and a few others are at the core of it. If you don't believe me, try them for yourself!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
heavy going!
I wish I'd chosen Simon Sharma I'm afraid! This book is very heavy going for the non academic historian. Read more
Published on 1 Mar 2004
A continuing delight
I haven't even finished this yet, and I already want to rave about it. Initially I felt a little shame-faced and sheepish, buying something called Albion, because of its... Read more
Published on 4 Sep 2003 by Dreamburo
A continuing delight
I haven't even finished this book yet, and I already want to rave about it. I felt a little sheepish and shamefaced buying a book called Albion, because of its nationalistic... Read more
Published on 3 Sep 2003
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