Representations of London in Colin MacInnes's "Absolute Beginners"

Seminar paper from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, University of Paderborn (Anglistik und Amerikanistik), course: London in Literature: Selected Novels and Stories, language: English, abstract: I have often amused myself with thinking how different a place London is to different people.

James Boswell

What is a city? Some people associate it with diversity, size, mobility, freedom, hope, glamour, change etc. For the others, on the other hand, the city stands for chaos, crowds, misery, poverty, noise, loneliness, anonymity, despair, decadence and crime. Some are glad to live there and others try to escape from it.

One of the most important, biggest and famous cities in the world is London. The capital of Great Britain that lies on the river Thames has a very long history. Today London is a very important industrial, commercial and cultural centre, not only in Great Britain but also in the entire world. It is a city with thousands of different faces and places.

For centuries, London inspired writers such as V. Woolf, P. Ackroyd, J. Sinclair and in particular Charles Dickens, who is regarded as the first London novelist.