Department of English

The course will look at a series of books--a provisional reading list is Boswell's "Life of Johnson," Dickens' "Oliver Twist," George Gissing's "New Grub Street," Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway," Anthony Powell's "Casanova's Chinese Restaurant," Margaret Drabbles' "The Ice Age," Kingsley Amis's "The Folks That Live on the Hill," and Martin Amis's "The Information"--written by London authors, set in London and, in some cases, dealing with the London literary life. Discussion of the texts and how each author conceived or conceives of a life in letters will be supplemented by visits to locations featured in the novels.