{"product_id":"nightwalking-a-nocturnal-history-of-london-paperback","title":"Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMatthew Beaumont\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eWill Self\u003c\/b\u003e (Afterword by)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA captivating literary portrait of London explored at night by some of the city's most iconic writers throughout history\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Cities, like cats, will reveal themselves at night,\" wrote the poet Rupert Brooke. Before the age of electricity, the nighttime city was a very different place to the one we know today - home to the lost, the vagrant and the noctambulant. Matthew Beaumont recounts an alternative history of London by focusing on those of its denizens who surface on the streets when the sun's down. If nightwalking is a matter of \"going astray\" in the streets of the metropolis after dark, then nightwalkers represent some of the most suggestive and revealing guides to the neglected and forgotten aspects of the city. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this brilliant work of literary investigation, Beaumont shines a light on the shadowy perambulations of poets, novelists and thinkers: Chaucer and Shakespeare; William Blake and his ecstatic peregrinations and the feverish ramblings of opium addict Thomas De Quincey; and, among the lamp-lit literary throng, the supreme nightwalker Charles Dickens. We discover how the nocturnal city has inspired some and served as a balm or narcotic to others. In each case, the city is revealed as a place divided between work and pleasure, the affluent and the indigent, where the entitled and the desperate jostle in the streets. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith a foreword and afterword by Will Self, \u003ci\u003eNightwalkin\u003c\/i\u003eg is a fascinating literary exploration of the writers who traverse the city at night and the people they meet.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eMatthew Beaumont\u003c\/b\u003e is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at University College London. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eUtopia Ltd.: Ideologies of Social Dreaming in England 1870-1900\u003c\/i\u003e (2005), and the co-author, with Terry Eagleton, of \u003ci\u003eThe Task of the Critic: Terry Eagleton in Dialogue\u003c\/i\u003e (2009). He has also edited \u003ci\u003eRestless Cities\u003c\/i\u003e (2010). He lives and walks in London.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 496\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.1 x 7.7 x 5.1 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e July 22, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52708733911373,"sku":"9781804298480","price":24.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0927\/3304\/7117\/files\/tyXUVwY-I29781804298480.webp?v=1762334462","url":"https:\/\/belfastbooks.us\/products\/nightwalking-a-nocturnal-history-of-london-paperback","provider":"belfastbooks.us","version":"1.0","type":"link"}