The Great Fire of London

The making of a movie about Dickens' "Little Dorrit" is the story around which the events of this short book revolve. The cast of characters even seem to have come from Dickens. Ackroyd is a biographer of and authority on Dickens, so it's no surprise that he should write a novel in his style - albeit many of hundreds of pages lighter. All of the events figure, at least indirectly, in the filming of the movie. We have a director who is trying to get it made with government help; a disaffected professor turned writer with stars in his eyes; a lady who has some metaphysical involvement with the history of the area; her boyfriend who becomes involved with the writer and some others who affect those folks and the movie itself. Witty at times and sad at others, this is smoothly written and easy to follow. If you enjoy Ackroyd's newer writings, you'll like this early example of his fiction.