Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination

521 Pages·2004·4.75 MB·English

by  Peter Ackroyd

Table of Contents
Title Page
Dedication
Illustrations
Chronology
INTRODUCTION - Albion
Patterns of Eternity
CHAPTER 1 - The Tree
CHAPTER 2 - The Radiates
Old English
CHAPTER 3 - Listen!
CHAPTER 4 - Why Is a Raven Like a Writing Desk?
CHAPTER 5 - A Rare and Singular Bede
CHAPTER 6 - The Song of the Past
CHAPTER 7 - The Lives of Others
CHAPTER 8 - A Land of Dreams
CHAPTER 9 - A Note on English Melancholy
CHAPTER 10 - The Rolling Hills
CHAPTER 11 - It Rained All Night
CHAPTER 12 - The Prose of the World
CHAPTER 13 - The First Initials
CHAPTER 14 - Anglo-Saxon Attitudes
Middle English
CHAPTER 15 - The Alteration
CHAPTER 16 - He Is Not Dead
The Piety of England
CHAPTER 17 - Faith of Our Fathers
CHAPTER 18 - Old Stone
CHAPTER 19 - Part of the Territory
The Poetry of England
CHAPTER 20 - A Song and a Dance
CHAPTER 21 - Fathers and Sons
CHAPTER 22 - The Foolish Giant
Solitaries and Recusants
CHAPTER 23 - The Mysterious Voice
CHAPTER 24 - The Inheritance
Women and Silence
CHAPTER 25 - The Female Religion
A Renaissance
CHAPTER 26 - But Newly Translated
CHAPTER 27 - The Italian Connection
Mungrell Tendencies
CHAPTER 28 - A Short History of Shakespeare
CHAPTER 29 - And Now for Streaky Bacon
Antiquarianism and English History
CHAPTER 30 - Among the Ruins
CHAPTER 31 - The Conservative Tendency
CHAPTER 32 - A Short History Lesson
In the English Tradition
CHAPTER 33 - The Song of the Sea
CHAPTER 34 - A Brief Excursion
CHAPTER 35 - A Miniature
CHAPTER 36 - I Saw You, Missis
An English Bible
CHAPTER 37 - In the Beginning
Cockney Visionaries
CHAPTER 38 - London Calling
A Wealth of Characters
CHAPTER 39 - An Essay on the Essay
CHAPTER 40 - The Hogarthian Moment
CHAPTER 41 - Some Eminent Novelists
CHAPTER 42 - A Character Study
CHAPTER 43 - The Fine Art of Biography
Women and Anger
CHAPTER 44 - Femality and Fiction
Melodrama
CHAPTER 45 - Blood and Gore
CHAPTER 46 - Ghosts
Philosophy, Mockery and Learning
CHAPTER 47 - Practice Makes Perfect
CHAPTER 48 - Prolix and Prolific
CHAPTER 49 - Some More Dunces
Green England
CHAPTER 50 - The Secret Garden
Looking Backwards
CHAPTER 51 - Forging a Language
CHAPTER 52 - The Romantic Fallacy
CHAPTER 53 - English Music
EPILOGUE - The Territorial Imperative
Notes
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
About the Author
Also by Peter Ackroyd
Copyright Page
For Murrough O’Brien
Illustrations
“Trees V: Spreading Branches,” 1979, by Henry Moore (Tate, London 2002)
Twelfth-century spiral markings, church of St. Laurence Pittington, County
Durham (Peter Burton and Harland Walshaw)
Ornamental page with the beginning of the Gospel according to John, from the
Lindisfarne Gospels (AKG/British Library)
Photograph of Charles Dickens dreaming, 1861, by John and Charles Watkins
(National Portrait Gallery, London)
Stone portrait of John Donne in his shroud, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
(London UK/Bridgeman Art Library)
Ornamental page with monogram from the Lindisfarne Gospels (AKG/British
Library)
“Sir Bedivere throws the sword Excalibur into the water.” Manuscript
illumination, early fourteenth century (AKG/British Library)
Arthur, Prince of Wales, eldest son of Henry VII (National Portrait Gallery,
London, loan, courtesy of private collection)
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert dressed as Queen Guinevere and King Arthur,
at the Bal Costumé of 12 May 1842, by Edwin Landseer (from the Royal
Collection by gracious permission of Her Majesty the Queen)
“Figure of Guinevere,” circa 1858, by William Morris (Tate, London 2002)
“Guenever”: illustration to the Arthurian legend, by David Jones (Tate, London