Why read The London Spy?

Book cover of The London Spy

Book description

Ned Ward pioneered the literary exploration of the life and character of late 17th-century London, and delighted in challenging the assumed superiority of `literary' language over the `vulgar' -and the reaction he provoked among the guardians of Augustan culture.
The London Spy, based upon the author's personal knowledge and experiences,…

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European history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The London Spy as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

A.J. West

Author

Ned Ward was a tavern keeper in the early 1700s, and this little-known book offers an extraordinary time capsule. It allows the reader to travel back some three hundred years to the grimy streets of London that feel at once alien and familiar.

The lions and other exotic animals in the Tower of London, the freshly-domed St Paul’s Cathedral, the filth and noise, the danger and the stink. All of it is here, not to mention the fabulous dialect of the time, offering the most wonderful dictionary of terms for sex workers, thieves, lawyers, and every trade imaginable. All history…

From A.J.'s list on The best books for the curious London time traveler.