Chatterton
 

CHATTERTON

by Peter Ackroyd

Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770), apparently a suicide at 18, posthumously astonished literary England when he was revealed as the author of a sequence of famous and influential "medieval" poems he claimed to have discovered. An authentic talent as well as a literary counterfeiter, he is the guiding spirit of Peter Ackroyd's brilliant novel. In today's London, a young poet and an elderly... (read more)

Top tags: historical fictionfictionalized biography18th centurybritainbritish (all tags)

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quinnsmom
  • Rated 4 stars

In an essay by Brian Finney, he notes that "we all appropriate the past for our own purposes and in our own ways." If you give this some thought, it is probably a basic truth of human nature, and this point is superbly drawn in this novel. Many people who reviewed this book did not like it, citing its eccentric characters and bizarre plot, but I thought it was absolutely stunning. It is a great example of postmodern literature, in which textuality rules the day, and in which one must beware...

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  • Rated 3.764706 stars
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  • Rated 4 stars
 

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