Description
Book SynopsisEleven walks which look at Bath through the eyes of eminent authors as diverse as Smollett, Jane Austen, Dickens, Fanny Burney, Sheridan, Georgette Heyer, Mary Shelley and John Betjeman. They create a vivid social history of the city over the last 300 years. Fully illustrated, with detailed accounts of the writers and their works.
Table of ContentsForeword by Peter Lovesey Introduction 1 The Lost Inns of Bath: A Literary Odyssey 2 'Like Mirrors Made, for Men to See': The Bath Stage in the Eighteenth Century 3 'A Sink of Profligacy and Extortion': Tobias Smollett in Bath 4 The Rudest Man in England: An Introduction to Philip Thicknesse 5 Pleasure, Pain and Grief: Fanny Burney in Bath 6 Rebels and Romantics: Catherine Macaulay, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Mary Shelley & Percy Bysshe Shelley in Bath 7 'The Rhythm of Tom Paine's Bones' Radicalism and Repression in Pitt's 'Reign of Terror' 8 'Vapour, Shadow, Smoke and Confusion': Jane Austen's Bath 9 Pickwick, Pubs and Penny Readings: In the Footsteps of Charles Dickens 10 Beaux, Belles and Black Sheep: Bath Through the Eyes of Georgette Heyer 11 'Goodbye to Old Bath': Around Bath with John Betjeman Summary of distances and accessibility Acknowledgements & Picture Credits Further Reading, Bookshops, Museums & Galleries