Book Review: "London: The Illustrated Literary Companion" by Rosemary Gray

In the book Around the World in 80 Books by David Damrosch, I got to read this beautiful chapter about London and its literary components. It started with an analysis of London according to Clarissa Dalloway from Virginia Woolf's legendary realist novel Mrs. Dalloway. It moves on to a number of different authors from which my possible favourite has to be Charles Dickens. But apart from just Dickensian London, there are other aspects waiting to be explored. It was the book by David Damrosch which made me seek out a compiled source of beautiful texts on the city of London throughout the ages and I am so glad that I came across this compiled classic by Rosemary Gray.

Inside this book, there are a number of great writings about London. The atmosphere, the life, the places and the people. But there are also writings about events in the news and opinion pieces about the city. One of the pieces I really enjoyed was by Virginia Woolf on famous people's houses. I liked the way she wrote about the place John Keats lived in London because it wasn't invasive into his life. Instead, it was an appreciation of Keats as a human being and the place where he came from.

The journalism within this book is also really quite interesting. I read this piece called Suicide from Waterloo Bridge which is about a young woman jumping to her death. Horrifying as it was to read and sad as it is to know it actually happened, this piece really puts together the darker side of living in London. An American governess throws herself from Waterloo Bridge in a fit of despair - she has no want to return to America, she has no want to live in England, she has no want to live at all.

There was also some poetry in this book as well, all again poetry about the atmosphere and life in London. One of the poems was called London in July and it was by Amy Levy in the 19th century. The description of the 'intricate maze' of the London Market streets and the way in which the summer approaches quickly, the ideas surrounding the lifestyle of the common London person - all these are amazingly explored in a poem that is less than twenty lines long. I think that this was quite possibly one of the best poems in the whole anthology because it really stuck with me as to juxtapose one of the first pieces of writing in the anthology, a piece entitled London Snow.

From Charles Dickens to Oscar Wilde, almost everyone you know as everyone is covered in this book about the city of London and there is a special piece of attention paid to the kind of writing that illuminates the capital. I thought that this book was quite possibly one of the best books I have ever read about London City and it will continue to be so for a while. From the snow to the summer, from poetry to prose, from journalism to cartoons, this book may be concise, but that doesn't mean it lacks detail.

Oscar Wilde's poem about London has beauty whilst Virginia Woolf's pieces have experience, Amy Levy's poem has atmosphere whilst Dr Samuel Johnson seems to reign over the text, casting his incredible shadow of words upon the city. You can just sit back and get lost in each piece, imagining time and place, people and how they go about their days. You walk around with them and whether it be the early 19th century or the end of the reign of Queen Victoria, there is something in this for everyone to enjoy.