THE LITERARY AND CULTURAL SPACES OF RESTORATION LONDON. This item is unavailable.THE LITERARY AND CULTURAL SPACES OF RESTORATION LONDON

In September 1666 the Great Fire destroyed four-fifths of the ancient commercial City of London. All that had been familiar, settled, known, was suddenly swept away, and Londoners faced an emptiness that was not only physical but also historical, social, financial, and conceptual. In this study Cynthia Wall reads the literature of Restoration and early-eighteenth-century London in the context of other texts such as sermons, royal proclamations, maps, and topographies, and shows how literature attempts to reinvest the city with "modern" meaning and create new spaces for new genres.

"Wall approaches her subject with a clear purpose and she writes with a bewitchingly lucid prose. Her argument is penetrating, well-articulated, and immensely convincing. Wall cogently illuminates an extensive cultural reorganization of city-space. The Literacy and Cultural Spaces of London marks a significant contribution to both scholarship and methodology, redefining the very cultural space of contemporary criticism." Virginia Quarterly Review

"...a rich and subtle narrative...utterly convincing..." Studies in English Literature

"Cynthia Wall has provided a fuller account of the literary and cultural importance of the fire and its aftermath...ambitious and impressive." Modern Philology