There are so many parts of this that I enjoyed, but sadly quite a few I found slightly tedious. The history part I loved, the rules and regulations, assumptions about class and gender, inefficiencies of the nightwatchman all that stuff, great, loved it. But the literary references, the influence of the night on figures such as Blake, DeQuincy and others (excluding Dickens, who really was a night-time Londoner) it almost felt like a separate book.
(Clive Yelf - bwl 92 Spring 2017 ) |
