The City in Literature: An Intellectual and Cultural History

Rating:
Summary: not very specific!
Review: An ok general analysis of the theme of the city in literature but some major problems limit the interest of the book. The focus is largely on works written in English. There are only a handful of pages on Baudelaire, Balzac, Calvino, Dostoevsky; nothing on Kerouac and the Beats; a great deal on Eliot and Joyce that reads more like a summary of their work instead of an analysis of the role of the city in their work. The book's emphasis on Modernism also overplays the theme of alienation and the city, and almost completely ignores the element of cultural cross-pollination and creativity that can result from a stimulating urban milieu. By spending so much time on Eliot's "Four Quartets, " a reader might get the impression that there is nothing redeeming about cities and they only serve to grind down the masses with their impersonality and distance from nature.
This book is perhaps best suited for a bright high school student who is looking for a good frame in which to put some of their reading. Otherwise, head back to Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford and others. Good bibliography in here, however....

Rating:
Summary: not very specific!
Review: An ok general analysis of the theme of the city in literature but some major problems limit the interest of the book. The focus is largely on works written in English. There are only a handful of pages on Baudelaire, Balzac, Calvino, Dostoevsky; nothing on Kerouac and the Beats; a great deal on Eliot and Joyce that reads more like a summary of their work instead of an analysis of the role of the city in their work. The book's emphasis on Modernism also overplays the theme of alienation and the city, and almost completely ignores the element of cultural cross-pollination and creativity that can result from a stimulating urban milieu. By spending so much time on Eliot's "Four Quartets, " a reader might get the impression that there is nothing redeeming about cities and they only serve to grind down the masses with their impersonality and distance from nature.
This book is perhaps best suited for a bright high school student who is looking for a good frame in which to put some of their reading. Otherwise, head back to Jane Jacobs, Lewis Mumford and others. Good bibliography in here, however....