An extended essay by Pritchett (1900-97) and striking b&w photographs by Evelyn Hofer present a personal view of the city, integrating history, art, literature, and daily life. The 1962 cloth edition was published by Harcourt Brace and World. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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London of the mind, the heart, and the eye is displayed, discussed and dissected with eloquence and understated wit in this classic collaboration uniting the unfailingly elegant prose of V. S. Pritchett and the consistently revealing photographs of Evelyn Hofer. Here is a pithy and knowledgeable distillation of the London experience — a panorama of its history, art, literature, and daily life. Here is the city that Londoners know, a paradox of grandeur and grime, the locus of bustling markets and tranquil parks, of the ancient and modern, of palaces and pubs, of docks and railroad depots. As Pritchett observes, "If Paris suggests intelligence, if Rome suggests the world, if New York suggests activity, the word for London is experience. This points to the awful fact that London has been the most powerful and richest capital in the world for several centuries. It has been, until a mere fifteen years ago, the capital of the largest world empire since the Roman and, even now, is the focal point of a vague Commonwealth. It is the capital source of a language now dominant in the world. Great Britain invented the language: London printed it and made it presentable."
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