Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Authors: Peter Ackroyd
List Price: $23.00
Amazon Price: $14.95
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Reviews:
Summary: a layman's comment
I was drawn to the simple cover on this book and decided upon reading the summary that it sounded interesting. I have no prior knowledge of the Lambs but feel that they provided a frame work for the story of William Ireland rather than being the primary subject of the book. I had hopes of having their characters developed further but that was not to be. The story of William Ireland was very well written and though was not supposed to be completely factual, did leave one with a sense of wonder at just how brilliant a young man he must have been. I was sad to find that in the closing of the book nothing was mentioned of the sucessful career William Ireland went on to have as a writer of Gothic Novels. I have read Gondez the Monk, and Rimualdo or the Castle of Badajos, both very entertaining and complete with amazing poetry and verse. His love of Shakespeare is apparent in these writings as well.
Summary: Monkeys on the Moon
"The Lambs of London" is a nifty little book that blends history and fiction with just a soupcon of mystery to make for a very satisfying read. In the last decade of the 18th century, William Henry Ireland really did produce a number of Shakespeare-related manuscripts (including a letter to the bard from Queen Elizabeth) that experts swore were authentic. I know of no factual connection to Charles and Mary Lamb, but Mary's tragic history (somewhat telescoped here) dovetails nicely with that of Ireland, who, like Chatterton, was but a teenager when he committed his infamous forgeries, the most notorious of which was a "lost play" by Shakespeare entitled "Vortigern," after the Dark-age British King. Other sources give the full title of the play as "Vortigern and Rowena," although this is never mentioned by Ackroyd, and there are other minor discrepancies as well (for instance, Ireland's so-called "patron" and source of the manuscripts is usually given as another young man and not a woman), but Ackroyd is not so much interested in the truth as in the "larger narrative." And a riveting narrative it is! Along the way, we meet such period heavy hitters as Richard Brinsley Sheridan and Thomas de Quincey, and there are fine portraits of lesser-knowns such as Ireland's father, Samuel, an antiquarian who was ruined by the scandal, and Charles Lamb's circle of bibulous friends from the East India House, who stage a play of their own, portraying the "mechanicals" in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." The climax of the novel is a brilliantly realized staging of "Vortigern," which may or may not have been the travesty it was later judged to be. There is more attention to character and plot in "The Lambs of London" than is typical of Ackroyd's novels, thus making this one of his best. I recommend it warmly.
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