Examine The First Bohemians: Life And Art In Londons Golden Age Produced By Vic Gatrell Presented In Ebook

of the best history books I ever came across, The author did some brilliant research of the Covent Garden area in London and its artists, writers, etchers, printsellers, shopkeepers and brothels.
You meet all the major characters and find superb illustrations you'll never forget, My personal highlight was the chapter on Thomas Rowlandson and what an outstanding genius that enfant terrible was.
That chapter alone catapults the books in the highest spheres imaginable, I know the streets around Covent Garden extremely well but with this book you see all those places in a different light.
After reading those chapters you want to set out for covent garden and feel the spirit of the Golden Age of Caricature in Britain and beyond.
Must read book and cornerstone for understanding English culture, A very interesting, wellresearched look into the world of the CoventGardenproximate artist in theth century, Nonfiction frequently makes my mind wander alarmingly, but this I read with relish, An enjoyable and wellwritten look at the lively world of the Covent Garden area in theth Century.


I very much enjoyed City of Laughter and I enjoyed this also the focus is a little wider, starting off with the environment of Covent Garden, the sort of houses, shops and spaces that were there and how they were depicted before going into a tension between artists who portrayed real life and those primarily of the Royal Academy who were making art that was more neoclassical and refined.


Then we had a chapter on Hogarth, one on Rowlandson and one on Turner, These last three chapters, interesting as they were, didnt seem to contribute much to the Covent Garden theme and seemed more tangental to it.


I definitely liked the first part about Covent Garden as a place most, I also love how his feeling for theth Century where the writing is no nonsense and propels us niftily to the point as opposed to theth Century which is windy tosh is exactly my feelings.


Im still not convinced we called call the people of Covent Garden Bohemian though, even following his definition an attitude of dissent, from the prevailing attitudes of the middle class as most of the people in Covent Garden were the middle class.
Also, people like Hogarth were desperate to be of a higher social status and the writers wrote for money I just dont think there is the antimiddle class element to call them Bohemian.
A totally great, fulltooverflowing study of the Covent Garden art world in the eighteenth century, Hogarth, Rowlandson, Blake, Gillray, and other incredible satirists, landscape painters and engravers burst from the pages, If you're into this sort of thing, you'll really like it, Gatrell uses the word "whore" a lot, which is mildly discomfiting, but then a lot of the time he's quoting eighteenthcentury men, for whom "whore" was merely a noun with no emotional charge.
. . A charming portrait ofth century Covent Garden and the people there the highs and lows, the famous, the infamous and the less known.
. . As is said, somewhere in the book and I'm paraphrasing, the ordinary people are the ones that are hardest to come close to, for the simple reason that they leave so few traces in the records.
But even so, not much is missing in this densely populated book! This book focuses the London neighborhood of Covent Garden in theth century where some early "Bohemian" artists lived.
The first chapters focus on urban and social history while it moves toward art history and biography, While in

my own mind, I tend to think ofth century England as a world of gentlemen in wigs and neoclassical art, this book focuses on the innovative humorists and pedestrian artists that depicted the low brow aspects of life in London that would later be swept under the rug, more or less, during the Victorian age.
The colourful, salacious and sumptuously illustrated story of Covent Garden the creative heart of Georgian London from Wolfson Prizewinning author Vic Gatrell

In the teeming, disordered, and sexually charged square halfmile centred on London's Covent Garden something extraordinary evolved in the eighteenth century.
It was the world's first creative 'Bohemia', The nation's most significant artists, actors, poets, novelists, and dramatists lived here, From Soho and Leicester Square across Covent Garden's Piazza to Drury Lane, and down from Long Acre to the Strand, they rubbed shoulders with rakes, prostitutes, market people, craftsmen, and shopkeepers.
It was an often brutal world full of criminality, poverty and feuds, but also of high spirits, and an intimacy that was as culturally creative as any other in history.
Virtually everything that we associate with Georgian culture was produced here, Gatrell's riproaring read draws the highs and lows of life, art and personality in Covent Garden in the Eighteenth Century with all the exuberance and fun of a Thomas Rowlandson sketch.
The last four chapters in particular are great fun, And reconfirm the author's reputation as the punk rocker of art history, Not pleasant and I did not like the author's writing style, Much better than the last history ofth Century London I read, In the main because it has a much tighter focus the 'bohemians' who lived in and around Covent Garden.
. . There are pen pictures of some notable figures like Hogarth and lots of illustrations, Good overview of the coffee house scene, Vic Gatrell is a social historian of eighteenth and nineteenth century Britain, and a Life Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
a. k. a. V. A. C. Gatrell.