[ebooktalk] PETER ACKROYD THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTINE
- From: "Steven Bingham" <steven.bingham1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 12:16:38 -0000
Hi
I have nearly finished this fascinating novel. It is a retelling of the
Frankenstine story for the point of view of Victor Frankenstine. Shelley is
a character in the story.
One thing that strikes me about Ackroyd's writing is that he is very good on
smell. Smell doesn't often get a look in in fiction and I suppose this is
reasonable as we don't really notice it. Today the prominent smell of most
of our towns and a good bit of the countryside is the smell of petrol or
diesel oil from vehicles. Transport has always had a large impact on the
smell of a place up until the end of the first World War it would have been
the smells associated with horses. Up until the adoption of modern sewage
treatment and particularly the water closet much of the smell of a place
would have been attributable to human waste.
The book is set in the period around 1820. At that time the smell of London
must have been horrendous by modern standards. Not only did you have the
horse and human waste but cattle were kept, often in cellars, to provide
milk; there were large numbers of slaughter houses to provide meat and of
course all these animals to feed provide dairy produce and eggs would have
to be driven through the streets. Then there was the river . We have all
heard about the 'Great Stink' of the 1850s.
So ackroyd does describe the stench of the places, not obsessively, but
enough to make it fairly real.
Steve
Other related posts:
