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erboe501's review against another edition
2.0
A lot of talk (rambling), but didn't really learn that much.
papidoc's review against another edition
3.0
Mildly interesting, though not really my cup of tea, as the British might say. I read Imagined London on my last trip to London, hoping for something of a memoir or personal experience that would grab me and cause me to think differently about the city as I wandered its parks and byways. It was the former, but didn't do much of the latter for me.
lizzina's review against another edition
3.0
I am lover of the city of London. Whenever I have the chance to go there, I feel like at home. I bought this book because I found lovely the idea of a narration through some of the books set in London, and actually it was quite a nice book. I should take some time and write all the books are quoted. I would recommend this book if you love London, as it didn't change much my perspective (or imagination) of the city in my mind. I think it's because I love it too much and visited it so many times that it is quite difficult to "change" the pictures of the places as they are in my mind.
I didn't give more than 3 stars as in the end the book was a bit repetitive, and I guess it could have been developed a bit more to be a bit better ;)
I didn't give more than 3 stars as in the end the book was a bit repetitive, and I guess it could have been developed a bit more to be a bit better ;)
susanob's review against another edition
4.0
I love books that mention other books and then you want to read them. Now I want to read Dickens, Henry James and other London authors. A short book (about 100 pages) that takes you on a literary tour of London - I feel like I have been on a brief vacation and I haven't left my living room. I love books.
pattydsf's review against another edition
3.0
A short quick read about London and all the books Quindlen read that were set in this city. Not a bad book, but only touches the tip of all the material set in this wonderful city.
I will say, Quindlen made me want to go back and explore this wonderful city.
I will say, Quindlen made me want to go back and explore this wonderful city.
kathleenww's review against another edition
4.0
Sweet little gem of a book. Anna Quindlen has a fondness for the London she's experienced through much of the classic English lit she's read throughout her life, beginning in her childhood. I share that fondness myself. So this book is a magical mystery tour for readers and lovers of London!
Quindlen visits London (finally as an adult) and revisits much of what she's read while she's there. Heavy on Dickens, Waugh and Trollope, there is plenty here for everyone. I myself love Forster and Austen (both mentioned), and there is a smattering of Shakespeare, Maugham, James (PD and Henry), Eliot(both George and TS), Chaucer, Browning, Woolf...she covers many a haunt..you may not have read them all, but even if you haven't, you will be encouraged to after this travelogue.
Quindlen's ramblings about her most favorite literary city and telling and warm, even when the city is not so friendly itself. She is obviously quite fond of the place, and reading this gave me even more of a hankering to visit there. It also added a few authors and books to my TBR pile. Charming, quirky adn quick, this book also shows off the immense talent of Quindlen as author and journalist, able to really express a feeling in one short sentence. I love her use of unusual and archaic language, which in the writings of others might come off as pretentious or overly scholarly, but in Quindlen's work, seems natural and the vocabulary of a great reader. I truly admire that. Neat little book.
Quindlen visits London (finally as an adult) and revisits much of what she's read while she's there. Heavy on Dickens, Waugh and Trollope, there is plenty here for everyone. I myself love Forster and Austen (both mentioned), and there is a smattering of Shakespeare, Maugham, James (PD and Henry), Eliot(both George and TS), Chaucer, Browning, Woolf...she covers many a haunt..you may not have read them all, but even if you haven't, you will be encouraged to after this travelogue.
Quindlen's ramblings about her most favorite literary city and telling and warm, even when the city is not so friendly itself. She is obviously quite fond of the place, and reading this gave me even more of a hankering to visit there. It also added a few authors and books to my TBR pile. Charming, quirky adn quick, this book also shows off the immense talent of Quindlen as author and journalist, able to really express a feeling in one short sentence. I love her use of unusual and archaic language, which in the writings of others might come off as pretentious or overly scholarly, but in Quindlen's work, seems natural and the vocabulary of a great reader. I truly admire that. Neat little book.
sbelasco40's review against another edition
3.0
London happens to be the international city I've spent the most time in - probably something like 6 weeks of my life during my 4 visits - and it is definitely one of my favorite places on earth. Quindlen's version of London is highly familiar to me, mostly because she evaluates it based on the most conventional parameters. Her London is the London of Dickens and Sherlock Holmes, of Elizabeth I, bombed out in WWI, the London of Shakespeare's Globe and the British Museum. It's like a Greatest Hits album of London, and like most Greatest Hits albums it's satisfying to a certain extent because it hits some of the greatest things about London. Quindlen is a great writer and I enjoyed her tour through familiar and magical places. But the book didn't teach me much - not just because she stuck to the familiar and common but because she is weirdly worshipful of the city and doesn't offer much in the form of critique or even evaluation. She confines contemporary British lit to the last chapter, where she drops mentions of some of the most famous of England's newer writers like Zadie Smith and Monica Ali, but she seems totally ignorant of the ways in which British literature has flourished in the last 20-30 years. Yes, Dickens was great, for certain definitions of great, but England is STILL a literary powerhouse. It's still a place of great drama even though Shakespeare's been dead 500 years. It may be the most international city in the world, and it has benefitted from these worldly influences. If London really is the "world's greatest fictional city" - and who could really say that, honestly - it remains so because it borrows from all over the world. That's why I love London, anyway - its layers, its many levels. Quindlen, for all her Anglophilia, seems content to stay mostly surface-level, and that level in her world is largely white and middle/upper-class. It's unfortunate, because that's not what London is anymore.
tobyyy's review against another edition
3.0
“Behind every door in London there are stories, behind every one ghosts. The greatest writers in the history of the written word have given them substance, given them life.
“And so we readers walk, and dream, and imagine, in the city where imagination found its great home.” — p. 160.
A luminous love letter to literary London.
Someday I’ll visit there and see all of the places that Quindlen loves so much, the places that are also beloved to me, shared in our love of literature.
“And so we readers walk, and dream, and imagine, in the city where imagination found its great home.” — p. 160.
A luminous love letter to literary London.
Someday I’ll visit there and see all of the places that Quindlen loves so much, the places that are also beloved to me, shared in our love of literature.
sarahcoller's review against another edition
3.0
Absolutely fantastic! I agree with every sentiment. I started this travelogue/bookish bio/love story early this afternoon and read it straight through, stopping only to feed my family dinner. It's hard to put into words the way Quindlen captured the feel of visiting places in England for the first time, but I think this quote says it best:
"Hyde Park, Green Park, Soho, and Kensington: I had been to them all in my imagination before ever setting foot in England. So that by the time I actually visited London in 1995 for the first time, it felt less like an introduction and more like a homecoming."
That's exactly how I felt when first visiting England in 2013. It was brand new yet very familiar and my feeling of homesickness has led me back three more times since. In fact, one of the most difficult things for me about the COVID restrictions the last 18 months is the fact that I can't freely travel back to this place that occupies such an enormous part of my emotions.
I appreciated how the author had avoided visiting London until her mid 40s, lest she find it disappointing and not what her mind had painted it up to be. She, of course, was pleasantly relieved to find that it was all she thought it would be and more. "When I turn the corner into a small, quiet, leafy square, am I really seeing it fresh, or am I both looking and remembering?" Yes. Exactly. This is one of the few "American in England" memoirs I've read in which the author seems to appreciate the realness of the experience and to separate out the fantasy to see England in its truth.
Additionally, I loved the analogy of all the "Londons" throughout history being piled atop one another like layers of earth. The history doesn't ever really disappear from this ancient city upon an ancient island---it just builds and morphs and adds to itself with each new era.
If I find any fault with the book, it's with the negligence of the editor. Quindlen overuses words like "chockablock" and "chuffed"---after discussing how she can't help but use British English in her writing. Their overuse, coupled with the fact that she doesn't start this until the second half of the book, shows that she probably doesn't actually use these words as often as she claims. She definitely adopts a different voice about half way, as well, leading me to believe she wrote part of the book and then put it away for quite awhile before pulling it out to finish. Oh, and I did get a little weirded out when she began talking about Freud in the context of her relationship with her teenage son... All this can be forgiven, however; it's truly an enjoyable read.
"Hyde Park, Green Park, Soho, and Kensington: I had been to them all in my imagination before ever setting foot in England. So that by the time I actually visited London in 1995 for the first time, it felt less like an introduction and more like a homecoming."
That's exactly how I felt when first visiting England in 2013. It was brand new yet very familiar and my feeling of homesickness has led me back three more times since. In fact, one of the most difficult things for me about the COVID restrictions the last 18 months is the fact that I can't freely travel back to this place that occupies such an enormous part of my emotions.
I appreciated how the author had avoided visiting London until her mid 40s, lest she find it disappointing and not what her mind had painted it up to be. She, of course, was pleasantly relieved to find that it was all she thought it would be and more. "When I turn the corner into a small, quiet, leafy square, am I really seeing it fresh, or am I both looking and remembering?" Yes. Exactly. This is one of the few "American in England" memoirs I've read in which the author seems to appreciate the realness of the experience and to separate out the fantasy to see England in its truth.
Additionally, I loved the analogy of all the "Londons" throughout history being piled atop one another like layers of earth. The history doesn't ever really disappear from this ancient city upon an ancient island---it just builds and morphs and adds to itself with each new era.
If I find any fault with the book, it's with the negligence of the editor. Quindlen overuses words like "chockablock" and "chuffed"---after discussing how she can't help but use British English in her writing. Their overuse, coupled with the fact that she doesn't start this until the second half of the book, shows that she probably doesn't actually use these words as often as she claims. She definitely adopts a different voice about half way, as well, leading me to believe she wrote part of the book and then put it away for quite awhile before pulling it out to finish. Oh, and I did get a little weirded out when she began talking about Freud in the context of her relationship with her teenage son... All this can be forgiven, however; it's truly an enjoyable read.