Chatterton - Softcover

Ackroyd, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0802134807 ISBN 13: 9780802134806

Publisher: Grove Press, 1996

Synopsis

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 novelist engage the mystery of Chatterton by trying to decode the clues found in an old manuscript, only to discover that their investigation discloses other riddles for which there are no solutions. Chatterton is at once a hilariously witty comedy; a thoughtful and dramatic exploration of the deepest issues of authenticity in both life and art; and a subtle and touching story of failed lives, parental love, doomed marriages, and erotic passions.

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From Library Journal:

A bestseller in Britain, Chatterton is the latest of Ackroyd's fictional games with figures from Britain's literary past. The plot centers around the discovery by Charles Wychwood, an aspiring poet, of an old manuscript that he believes to have been written by Thomas Chatterton, the 18th-century English poet who committed suicide at 18. Or did he? Ackroyd tantalizingly explores the themes of reality and illusion, truth and falsity, mortality and immortality, and the curious and inexplicable ways in which past, present, and future are entwined. An intriguing plot, laced with mystery and a hint of possession (a favorite subject of Ackroyd's), combines with a gallery of eccentric characters and some witty dialogue to produce this skillful, engaging, thought-provoking novel.Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Iowa
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Grove Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0802134807
• ISBN 13: 9780802134806
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 234