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Book Reviews of The Clerkenwell Tales

The Clerkenwell Tales
The Clerkenwell Tales
Author: Peter Ackroyd
ISBN-13: 9781400075959
ISBN-10: 1400075955
Publication Date: 11/8/2005
Pages: 224
Rating:
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 4

3.6 stars, based on 4 ratings
Publisher: Anchor
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

2 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

maura853 avatar reviewed The Clerkenwell Tales on + 542 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
In the absence of a time machine, this is probably the closest I'm ever going to get to experiencing the Year of Our Lord 1399, as famously ineffectual King Richard II is run down to earth and deposed by his nemesis Henry Bolingbroke, soon to be King Henry IV. As these great events take place, offstage, we are focused on London -- more precisely, the parish of Clerkenwell, outside the walls of the City of London -- as various Londoners scheme and plot, on behalf of themselves and the usurping Henry, and fall foul of the schemers and plotters, and go about their daily business.

Ackroyd is just marvellous on the past: the smells, the tastes, the streets, the clothing, the prayers, the language. Sometimes, it's like reading a work that is half-written in a foreign language, and yes, maybe he sometimes overdoes that, but I liked it. I liked it as a constant reminder that the characters are the same, yet different from us. That the past we are observing is a foreign country.
katknit avatar reviewed The Clerkenwell Tales on + 355 more book reviews
Good story,along the format of the Canterbury Tales. Gives a good sense of life in medieval times.