London Town


"It was a city in which the very old and the awkwardly new jostled each other, not uncomfortably, but without respect; a city of shops and offices and restaurants and homes, of parks and churches, of ignored monuments and remarkably unpalatial palaces; a city of hundreds of districts with strange names - Crouch End, Chalk Farm, Earl's Court, Marble Arch - and oddly distinct identities; a noisy, dirty, cheerful, troubled city, which fed on tourists, needed them as it despised them, in which the average speed of transportation through the city had not increased in three hundred years, following five hundred years of fitful road-widening and unskillful compromises between the needs of traffic, whether horse-drawn, or, more recently, motorized, and the needs of pedestrians; a city inhabited by and teeming with people of every color and manner and kind."

Such is Neil Gaiman's lengthy, yet appropriate, description of London in Neverwhere.  And London, to me, is one of the greatest real life literary settings.  I've visited it so many times: swimming through the yellow fog alongside Sherlock Holmes, clutching my trusty service revolver and waiting for him to yell, "The game is afoot!", wading through the foul yet magical sewers toshing with Dodger and running into platform barriers with Harry Potter.  I feel like I know it like the back of my hand, the smell and sound of the thoroughfares and back alleys, and the city's look and feel in every century and through every significant event that has already occurred and even those that haven't.  What can explain the wonderment of riding the Underground, not knowing when you would inadvertently stumble upon an Other World, with talking rats and villains that will gobble you up as a snack, except that it's the city that I dream of, the magical city.  London is where all good book lovers go to pay homage to the city that taught us to fall in love with a setting.

So do tell me, boys and girls, what city do you run away to the most often in books and what is your literary setting of choice?

pictures via goodreads

Comments

  1. I really love London as well. Especially the era of big balls and fancy dresses, though I imagine I would probably not have been upper class. I also love escaping to tropical climates, since that seems so far from real life.

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  2. London is awesome! Or really any European city! I find it all so interesting! I really like the setting of the book "The Historian" as well! But "Neverwhere" is one of my all time favorite books!

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  3. like in real life I vacillate between london and paris. followed by new york. not very creative, I'm afraid :)

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  4. I love this. And I wish I could visit and recreate all these wonderful stories. i'm currently reading the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and it makes me want to experience London alongside him.

    Wren

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  5. Sherlock and Disney (and the Doctor) make London an appealing choice. I guess it would be that or on a Federation starship. :)

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  6. Oh my gosh. I die at this post. I think I have wanted to visit London for a few years now and!!!

    London is definitely a favorite of mine for all things in real and written life. :)


    Um... I should probably find my copy of neverwhere on my kindle and re-start the book. I think I ended somewhere near the beginning before life decided to punk me. Ha. ;)

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  7. NY... There's something amazing about that city!

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  8. Hogwart LOL HP is the best <3 Are you a reader or more a writer?

    http://missoline.blogspot.com

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  9. Right now I'm with Mr. Christian Grey in the US and before that I was with Mikael Blomqvist in Stockholm. I love to see cities through the eyes of writers but most of all I want to experience them for myself, for real. London is my favourite place. I was there 10 days ago and shall return again next month.

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  10. Oh my goodness, I love the Rivers of London series. I laughed a little when I read the quote at the beginning of your post, because when he mentions districts with strange names, I live in the first one ;) And people do laugh when I say it, not Londoners though, they're used to silly names, like cockfosters.
    London is my city of choice for escaping to in books, it really does not disappoint. I also really like the cities that are made up though, because then my imagination has creative license to go a little crazy on the details.

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  11. London (brilliant minds thing alike. Obviously.)--although, I'm currently aboard ship with Horatio Hornblower. :)

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  12. Love books set in England. ONe of my all-time favourites is Rebecca...
    Ronnie xo

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  13. I have family just outside of London so the city has always had a certain appeal to me. I also feel like I know its o well from all the literary adventures I take there. Wolf Hall is great, I love any account of the King Henry VIII saga. And Harry Potter, obviously :)

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  14. I definitely agree with you, London is my favourite setting! I think London is very much romanticised as the city of all cities in books. Reading definitely fuelled my London obsession, haha. I haven't read a few of those books, I should get onto them!

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  15. Hmm... I feel like I end up on the East Coast of the US a lot. Interesting...

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  16. I am currently on the Gaza Strip which I am finding a bit depressing. I am not a fan of being in the South. Europe is always a wonderful getaway.

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  17. i loove london, it's one of my favorite cities to hang out in. there is a book called 'the londoners' that is really interesting - each chapter is from the point of view of different people that live there. love it!

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  18. The first time I went to London, it was impossible for me to walk past Big Ben and not think of Peter Pan saying “Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning." You are a really great writer by the way, its so refreshing! Following you now! :)
    xx,
    Paisley
    paisleynotplaid

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  19. I really like the whole British / London setting. I think it's because I lived there and I love the literature. Have you ever read Anita Burgh? Some of her novels are period novels set in the 17th and 18th centuries - they are centered around certain families and the people connected to them and each book goes into detail and tells the stories of the various people and how they are connected in the plots - over a long period of time and across generations. Sounds convoluted but makes compelling reading!

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  20. I only own American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I know I'm missing out on the rest of his wonderful work.

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  21. Love this post, Rooth:) There is something quite magical when you read about a place, and just feels so at home, even just in the imagination. I think for me, it would have to be New York City.

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  22. OMIGOSH, I love this so much and I am about to add all of these books to my to-read list.

    I also love books set anywhere in Britain. I think part of it is the setting, but part is also the beautiful writing style of British authors...gah...I love it.

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