- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (29 July 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0140171150
- ISBN-13: 978-0140171150
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,105,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Written by the author of "Hawksmoor", winner of the Whitbread Prize for Fiction, and "Chatterton", this is a pastoral novel of the late 20th century in which the author meditates on the nature of history, the problem of time and the true qualities of the English landscape.
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First Sentence
LET ME be drawn up into the immensity. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
LET ME be drawn up into the immensity. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the only one of Peter Ackroyd's novels that I have read and I found it disappointing. The characters are caricatures, from the farmer and his sagely simple son to the unconvincingly ignorant and unsympathetic Lesbian from The Ministry. The metaphysical aspects are vague and inconsistent, the relevance of the star Aldebaran (a name given to it by Arabic speakers, of whom there were precious few in Bronze Age Britain) to the "Old Barren One" forced beyond reason. If you want satirical bucolic lampoon, Stella Gibbons did it far better in "Cold Comfort Farm". The skeleton of a much better novel lies within these pages; a shame that Ackroyd perhaps did not have the time or the vision to produce it.
Format:Paperback
I've long enjoyed Peter Ackroyd's work - he has a talent for well researched, atmospheric, intriguing historical novels. Not here. Ackroyd displays limited knowledge of the key themes of the work: for instance, in astronomy you can't declare a star was 'in the east 3000 years ago' when the world spins every 24 hours and there are other clumsy errors which an editor should have noted. Such technical niggles might be ignored if the rest was up to scratch, but there is instead a vaguely mystical message about time with a supporting cast of dubiously comic characters (two butch lesbians, a gay antique dealer, yokels, new age feminists). I persevered but it was an effort. Was this an juvenile work released on the back of his later reputation?
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book has everything: comedy, drama, mystery, love, ghosts, madness, tragedy, brilliant characters, many separate but interwoven stories, plus a philosophical/emotional investigation into the beginning and end of the universe, time, death and the star dust we're all made of. Compassionate, funny, brilliant.
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