Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination

I'm only half way thru the book, but i will just quickly say, it's a great read. The author has a very good feel for the mystical/spiritual side of creativity and although this survey is a big topic i think he does it great justice. I recommend his biography of Blake too.

Peter Ackroyd is never at a loss for words and he uses a great many of them to trace the origins and progression of the English imagination from its very early Anglo-Saxon beginnings until the twentienth century in his new massive tome, Albion. Along the way, he covers music, art, religion, philosophy, history, and biography, as well as, of course, literature, and merges them together in quite insightful ways. The book is strongest in the early Anglo-Saxon and medieval sections that set up the author's thesis and it can grow a tad bit repetitious in theme in the later chapters as he pounds home his ideas. Overall though, the reader should be fascinated by the vast number of examples from primary (and some interesting secondary) sources that pepper the book. The author's knowledge is vast and his selection of sources is unimpeccable. A frequently interesting read.

This was the third Peter Ackroyd book I tried to read. First was his biography of Thomas Moore ¨C which I finished and enjoyed. The second was ¡°London - a Biography¡± ¨C which I loved to distraction at the outset but didn¡¯t finish because it exhausted me with its cyclical (I won¡¯t say repetitious) structure.¡°London¡± and ¡°Albion¡± share the trait of collecting many aspects of their subject with little chronological progression ¨C so that the reader is lead along with ¡°another aspect, another aspect, one after another..¡± In the case of London I was finally exhausted and gave up ¨C although I had started with an excitement and love for the subject that was (I assume) all that Ackroyd had wanted to induce. But it just didn¡¯t sustain in the face of continuing new aspects ¨C again and again ¨C with no apparent development or other sequencing to provide an over-riding structure. In fact the lack of development was for me so intense it ate away at my interest, energy and finally my patience. When I was reading it, I had visited London several times and was en-route again ¨C so interest was high and the subject was not unknown ¨C but I am not an intimate of London. It is not my city.¡°Albion¡± takes a loosely chronological approach. Not strict ¨C but enough for the reader to sense progression as it unfolds. This is a major difference but not the key one I think.Ackroyd¡¯s subject here is ¡°the English Imagination¡± ¨C but really the whole spectrum of art, literature experience and thought. For my reading, there were ample of Ackroyd¡¯s points that resonated with my own experience of (especially) literature, but also the art of England, and the imagination-stimulating atmosphere of its monuments (StoneHenge, Winchester Cathedral and so on) and places (Lake District etc). The sequentiality of the book is an assisting catalyst ¨C it helps the reading experience by avoiding a vacuum of structure ¨C but it is the sharing of emotions based on books, paintings and places that is the chemistry that makes reading ¡°Albion¡± a massive enjoyment.For this reader, English literature is my literature ¨C and Ackroyd is pointing to its inherent patterns, just as he does with English painting and the other aspects that are part of the ¡°English imagination¡±. Given then that reader and writer are intimates of the subject and there is enough apparent structure for the reader to sense progression as opposed to seemingly interminable chaotic cycles, then ¡°Albion¡± becomes a memorable joy to read.Ackroyd reminded me of so much of what I have enjoyed with so many books read, music heard, etc ¨C but he also loosely sketches out continuing themes and threads. So my delights are brought to mind and compounded as they are shown to have an inter-relationship. I compliment Ackroyd that these inter-relationships are such soft tones and colours that they never obtrude with didactic adamance, but instead massage and tinge the memories invoked.And here I fear the book narrows