[ebooktalk] Re: PETER ACKROYD THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTINE
- From: "Tar Barrels" <tar.barrels@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 22:16:18 -0000
I have to be in the right mood for him. He can be awfully stuffy and a bit
fond of his own voice, but once I get used ot his style I usually make it to
the end.
I quite enjoyed Hawksmoor.
June
_____
From: ebooktalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:ebooktalk-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Shell
Sent: 29 October 2013 18:49
To: ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ebooktalk] Re: PETER ACKROYD THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTINE
Steve, I did attempt to read Hawksmore by Peter Ackroyd some years ago and
couldn't get on with it. I haven't read him since, but then I was a lot
younger when I tried him and might get on better now.
Shell.
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From: "Steven Bingham" <steven.bingham1@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 29, 2013 12:16 PM
To: <ebooktalk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ebooktalk] PETER ACKROYD THE CASEBOOK OF VICTOR FRANKENSTINE
> 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
>
>
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