- Paperback: 176 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd; New edition edition (1 April 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 014017110X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140171105
- Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 13 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 1.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 470,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
Spenser Spender wants to make a film of Dickens' "Little Dorrit" using a contemporary London prison as a set. But he is not the only person interested in Dickens. Unwittingly he becomes the catalyst for bizarre meetings, coincidences and events, culminating in an apocalyptic conflagration.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Having read most Ackroyd novels (and loving them!!!) I was a bit disappointed after reading this one. The style is there and everything, but the story doesn't quite gel. You can't expect Ackroyd to produce books like "Chatterton" and "First Light" on a daily basis, but he can certainly write better books than "the Great Fire of London", which in fact he did. This novel is for hardcore fans only, definitely not for Ackroyd newbies.
Format:Paperback
Ackroyd's first novel outlines many of the themes that he has explored since in his prolific output. At the centre of things, the city of London, the interweaving of past and present, high literary content with reference to Dickens, and a ragbag collection of eccentric, unlikeable characters who wander through the story in rather haphazard style.
Just what the book is about is open to several interpretations, but at least at 167 pages it is blissfully short - unlike much of Ackroyd's later outpourings. As a novelist, his books are quite hard work to read, and ideas jump around all over the place - a style of writing that was certainly established here in this opening novel.
Critical acclaim abounds on the paperback edition - frankly these days as a first novel it probably wouldn't get accepted.
Just what the book is about is open to several interpretations, but at least at 167 pages it is blissfully short - unlike much of Ackroyd's later outpourings. As a novelist, his books are quite hard work to read, and ideas jump around all over the place - a style of writing that was certainly established here in this opening novel.
Critical acclaim abounds on the paperback edition - frankly these days as a first novel it probably wouldn't get accepted.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful
It certainly wasn't the best of times.
3 Sep 2009
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The making of a movie about Dickens' "Little Dorrit" is the story around which the events of this short book revolve. The cast of characters even seem to have come from Dickens. Ackroyd is a biographer of and authority on Dickens, so it's no surprise that he should write a novel in his style - albeit many of hundreds of pages lighter.
All of the events figure, at least indirectly, in the filming of the movie. We have a director who is trying to get it made with government help; a disaffected professor turned writer with stars in his eyes; a lady who has some metaphysical involvement with the history of the area; her boyfriend who becomes involved with the writer and some others who affect those folks and the movie itself.
Witty at times and sad at others, this is smoothly written and easy to follow. If you enjoy Ackroyd's newer writings, you'll like this early example of his fiction.
All of the events figure, at least indirectly, in the filming of the movie. We have a director who is trying to get it made with government help; a disaffected professor turned writer with stars in his eyes; a lady who has some metaphysical involvement with the history of the area; her boyfriend who becomes involved with the writer and some others who affect those folks and the movie itself.
Witty at times and sad at others, this is smoothly written and easy to follow. If you enjoy Ackroyd's newer writings, you'll like this early example of his fiction.
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