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The House of Doctor Dee By Peter Ackroyd. Having enjoyed Hawksmoor I was looking forward to Ackroyd's take on Elizabethan England, Dr. John Dee and Alchemy. The book was great. Like Hawksmoor it was split between the present day and the past. The man in the present day worked as a historical researcher and inherited a 16th century house in London from his father. I was more than a little jealous! There was less overlap between the two scenarios, rather both men seemed to be on a similar journey. Everyone who liked Hawksmoor but found the language for the 17th century bit too distracting would prefer this book. While Ackroyd kept the dialogue between characters in an Elizabethan tone the spelling and grammar remained modernised.
The book really reminded me of the chapter in From Hell when the doctor travels around the different areas of London explaining the significance of them. But the book was also an interesting personal journey. Dee starts as the most outrageous misanthrope, perhaps THE most hatefull character I've ever read in literature. There seems to be no real reason for this beyond his hunger for knowledge and the inability of anyone around him to understand that. On a lot of levels the book is really about trying to understand the isolation and the drive of mankind. But its also a fantastic and mysterious tale. I don't really want to say too much about it because I don't want to give away things for those who might read it. But it was great. I'm starting to believe that there may yet be hope for modern fiction.
(As I write there is currently a huge rain storm, the library is dark, there is a great sound of rain, and I just got to retrieve books from the room where we keep our first edition Shakespere plays. Happy!)
The book really reminded me of the chapter in From Hell when the doctor travels around the different areas of London explaining the significance of them. But the book was also an interesting personal journey. Dee starts as the most outrageous misanthrope, perhaps THE most hatefull character I've ever read in literature. There seems to be no real reason for this beyond his hunger for knowledge and the inability of anyone around him to understand that. On a lot of levels the book is really about trying to understand the isolation and the drive of mankind. But its also a fantastic and mysterious tale. I don't really want to say too much about it because I don't want to give away things for those who might read it. But it was great. I'm starting to believe that there may yet be hope for modern fiction.
(As I write there is currently a huge rain storm, the library is dark, there is a great sound of rain, and I just got to retrieve books from the room where we keep our first edition Shakespere plays. Happy!)