- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; Open market ed edition (1 Jan 1988)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140169423
- ISBN-13: 978-0140169423
- Product Dimensions: 18 x 11.2 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,862,793 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
With alternating chapters set in the late 1920s and in a dream world involving Byrd, Constable and Carroll, the novel charts the development of a motherless young man. The author also wrote "Chatterton" and "Hawksmoor". He was elected Author of the Year in 1990 by selected booksellers.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
English Music is a novel written like poetry. Peter Ackroyd uses his knowledge of and love for English literature and music to give the reader a wonderful reading experience. The relationship between Timothy and his father is beautifully portrayed. All the characters are portrayed with warmth. Warning: This book will inspire you to read Dickens and Bunyan all over again, and they will never be the same after you have read about Timothy's dreams!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The reviews below indicate that Ackroyd's ambition exceeds his grasp. I would disagree. The story of modest Timothy Harcombe and both the relationship he has with his father plus his intuitive dream connections with key cultural epochs in our nation's history, make this a work on a grand scale.
You do not need to have intimate contacts with the names 'dropped' nor should you consider the 'Music' of the title as something created by orchestras. The strength of this novel is just this.
Ackroyd's knowledge of his terrain (witness the number of hits on this site alone )qualifies his ambition. The result is both a subtle and tenderly crafted novel which immediately cries out for a re-read.
A wonderful insight to the undertones running through the English imagination - and an important document defining English (yep English, not British) sensibility.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a beautiful, transcendent view of both England and her cultural inheritance, and individual inheritance and history, as seen through the relationship between father and son.
It is sometimes hard to feel pride in what it means 'to be English', as like all colonial or once colonial powers, there is much to be sorry for in our history.
Ackroyd looks at a different way of perceiving 'how are we English' by suggesting that 'English Music' (a way of describing a history of the mind and spirit through artistic heritage) influences our character, spirit, identity in the same way that we inherit ways of perceiving the world, ways of being in the world, from our parents. There is genetic inheritance, and there is our whole nature from nurture - but the nurture is not just the individual in isolation - there is a collective conscious and collective unconscious which arises out of our myths, imaginations and hearts and souls - shaped by our art. I've never seen so clearly as with this book that there is a certain 'English mysticism' which Ackroyd focuses on as also part of who the English are.
The book is a transcendent song of praise for the line of music, art and above all, poetry and visionary Utopian and imaginative writing which can be traced back through history (focusing, in this book, mainly from the Renaissance onwards to the 1920s)
Ackroyd views this as a male inheritance - passed from an artistic 'father' to an artistic 'son' (the true inheritors of the mantle of 'English Music' creation may be unrelated physically - for example, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton) as of course in his historical period of tracing the line, it was mainly a masculine body of work, particularly this 'transcendent visionary mysticism' which he identifies as 'English music'. Though initially I was going to 4 star my review because of the missing female artistic history input, on reflection, the particular line of 'English music' he celebrates has few known female creators - though i did wonder whether Emily Bronte and George Eliot shouldn't have carried the mantle.
Yes, the book does take some willingness to work hard, on the reader's part, and certainly holds even more depth on re-reading, and with greater familiarity with our cultural heritage.
I know some reviewers have implied that Ackroyd is possibly just showing off his learning, and being 'clever' (rather than wise); for me, there is so much heart and love for our culture, and the ordinary man, and the relationships we have with each other in this book, that it seems heartfully FELT rather than mindgames.
Like another reviewer, it has inspired me to revisit some of our visionary artistic history.
It is sometimes hard to feel pride in what it means 'to be English', as like all colonial or once colonial powers, there is much to be sorry for in our history.
Ackroyd looks at a different way of perceiving 'how are we English' by suggesting that 'English Music' (a way of describing a history of the mind and spirit through artistic heritage) influences our character, spirit, identity in the same way that we inherit ways of perceiving the world, ways of being in the world, from our parents. There is genetic inheritance, and there is our whole nature from nurture - but the nurture is not just the individual in isolation - there is a collective conscious and collective unconscious which arises out of our myths, imaginations and hearts and souls - shaped by our art. I've never seen so clearly as with this book that there is a certain 'English mysticism' which Ackroyd focuses on as also part of who the English are.
The book is a transcendent song of praise for the line of music, art and above all, poetry and visionary Utopian and imaginative writing which can be traced back through history (focusing, in this book, mainly from the Renaissance onwards to the 1920s)
Ackroyd views this as a male inheritance - passed from an artistic 'father' to an artistic 'son' (the true inheritors of the mantle of 'English Music' creation may be unrelated physically - for example, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton) as of course in his historical period of tracing the line, it was mainly a masculine body of work, particularly this 'transcendent visionary mysticism' which he identifies as 'English music'. Though initially I was going to 4 star my review because of the missing female artistic history input, on reflection, the particular line of 'English music' he celebrates has few known female creators - though i did wonder whether Emily Bronte and George Eliot shouldn't have carried the mantle.
Yes, the book does take some willingness to work hard, on the reader's part, and certainly holds even more depth on re-reading, and with greater familiarity with our cultural heritage.
I know some reviewers have implied that Ackroyd is possibly just showing off his learning, and being 'clever' (rather than wise); for me, there is so much heart and love for our culture, and the ordinary man, and the relationships we have with each other in this book, that it seems heartfully FELT rather than mindgames.
Like another reviewer, it has inspired me to revisit some of our visionary artistic history.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Dull, dull, dull
I got it second hand at Oxfam for two quid, but it still wasn't worth it. I couldn't even use it to fall asleep reading it at night, because it's so big and heavy I... Read more
Published on 31 Oct 2005 by The Fat Priest
A fantastic and astonishing book
I read this book when it was first published and have re-read it on numerous occasions since. I loved it for the sheer intelligence of the writing. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2002
For English Graduates Only?
In order you to get anywhere with this book you probably need to have a degree in english literature. It is packed with references to other writers and books. Read more
Published on 12 Nov 2001
How many English artists/authors can you cram into a book?
This book is tedious. The dream sequences are somewhat pointless, and Ackroyd seems to be trying to win a competition to see how many English artists/authors/composers he can cram... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2001 by H. Mcintosh
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