Helpful Score: 1
In the absence of a time machine, this is probably the closest I'm ever going to get to experiencing the Year of Our Lord 1399, as famously ineffectual King Richard II is run down to earth and deposed by his nemesis Henry Bolingbroke, soon to be King Henry IV. As these great events take place, offstage, we are focused on London -- more precisely, the parish of Clerkenwell, outside the walls of the City of London -- as various Londoners scheme and plot, on behalf of themselves and the usurping Henry, and fall foul of the schemers and plotters, and go about their daily business.
Ackroyd is just marvellous on the past: the smells, the tastes, the streets, the clothing, the prayers, the language. Sometimes, it's like reading a work that is half-written in a foreign language, and yes, maybe he sometimes overdoes that, but I liked it. I liked it as a constant reminder that the characters are the same, yet different from us. That the past we are observing is a foreign country.
Ackroyd is just marvellous on the past: the smells, the tastes, the streets, the clothing, the prayers, the language. Sometimes, it's like reading a work that is half-written in a foreign language, and yes, maybe he sometimes overdoes that, but I liked it. I liked it as a constant reminder that the characters are the same, yet different from us. That the past we are observing is a foreign country.
