A Book Lover's Tour of London - London, England, United Kingdom

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London

I love books - I love those with elegant bindings, handwritten notes from previous owners, dog eared pages marking favorite passages. I love the musty smell of a book packed away through decades of history and when nobody is looking, I breathe in the flavors of times past and wonder who has read this book that I am holding; what was their life like; did they hastily throw this book into a sack during an escape, hide it from being detected by others, or simply read it with a cup of tea at their side and a dog at their feet?

London is the perfect destination for a book lover as it is known to have been the hangout for historical greats such as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Geoffrey Chaucer. Original manuscripts and relics of London's hometown heroes are well protected at the British Library. Charles Dickens' home houses bookshelves full of first editions of his work. But there is more to literature than the bound pages themselves - there is the historic fingerprint of the joys, tragedies, and self-doubts of the author as well as the current events of their time that lend humanity to each classic piece of literature. Walking through London allows the literary adventurer to experience many sights, sounds, and smells of days gone past.

I began my journey at the end...the British Library, proud host of over 12 million works of literature and historic documents from all over the world. Their must see FREE exhibit is called "The Treasures," as it includes historic maps, bibles, Leonardo DaVinci's notebook, the Magna Carta, Beowulf, Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare's manuscripts and folios, Beatles lyrics, and Handel's Messiah. It is a low-lit, climate controlled room, silently eerie as visitors stare longingly through glass partitions similar to a prisoner unable to touch his wife at visiting time.

The closest contact I could make with greatness was putting my forehead on the glass in order to get a closer look at the texture of the pages, the color of the ink, and the smudges left by hasty flipping before this ink had dried. Trying to read the British Library's Beowulf, the only surviving manuscript in the world, is next to impossible as the script of the day (A.D. 1000) includes loops and swirls unfamiliar to the twentieth century reader. However, for a 3.50 pound audio guide rental, a curator reads from the pages open to you. Now, instead of struggling to interpret the text, you can marvel at the scribe's exertion to tell the adventures of a great Scandinavian warrior.

While this was the beginning of my journey, this was for many an ending point of sorts, a culmination of months or even years of frustration, a final binding of pages that had not been thrown into a fire or crumpled up on the floor in despair. Many creators would not know in their lifetime the joy and admiration that they had inspired in centuries of readers, whereas Handel's score of Messiah contains within its pages the monstrous sound of clapping and cheers lavished upon the conductor at the conclusion of his first performance of this masterpiece. At the exit of the library is a statue which many irritating tourists like to use as a bench. It is a large bronze book laid open; on the rear it is attached to a large bronze ball and chain. Is it a message that stealing a "treasure" will lead to your arrest? No, my faithful traveling companion stated, it is a message that great literature is here to stay, a testament that the British Library is proud and humble to be the caretaker to such well deserving pieces of parchment.

It may make sense to pair the British Library and the Charles Dickens House and Museum as they are relatively close to each other. It would be easier to ride in style in an unexpectedly cheap cab than take the tube. Not only are the price right, and the cabbie likely to be a polite, conversationalist, but 48 Doughty Street, Dickens' humble abode, is easy to miss. Set among a long line of three level brick front homes, you will be surprised to reach the street level door and see a sign, asking you to ring the doorbell. Did you ever think you would be a guest at Charles Dickens' house? I expected a butler to whip open the door, be ready to take my coat, and offer me a spot of tea. Sadly, my faithful traveling companion pushed open the half opened door which landed us in a hallway leading to a cozy gift shop. We paid the 5 pound admission rate and headed to the basement to watch an informative video about Charles Dickens' life. While this video brings back painful memories of a high school history class, it is a must see especially at the beginning of your visit as it changes your appreciation for many of the major objects displayed including a set of iron bars from a prison cell, an apology from Dickens in an installment of The Pickwick Papers, and a ring.

Charles Dickens may have dealt with his own sorrows and tragedies by putting his pen to paper and immortalizing them. Many know the story of Oliver Twist and David Copperfield, but they may not know the similarities between the main characters' lives and that of Charles Dickens. Much of his soul's despair is the result of his father's inability to balance the checkbook. Living life consistently beyond his means, Dickens' father eventually ended up in a debtor's prison. His wife and seven of their children lived in the prison while young Charles was free and made to work to help support the family and pay off the debt. His job at a boot blacking factory left an indelible mark burned into his memory which resulted in a strong resentment of his parents and a soft spot for street urchins. The prison bars ripped out of the Marshalsea prison in Southwark and mounted on the hallway wall have tourists bowing their heads in silence, mourning Dickens' lost childhood, and empathizing with his humiliation and grief.

Another cherished Dickens' tale, The Old Curiosity Shop, also is painted with the brush of loss. Dickens' sister-in-law, Mary, is immortalized in the character of Nell. While living with Dickens and her sister, Mary Hogarth returned home ill after an evening out and never recovered. She died at 17 in Dickens' arms, an event so tragic for Dickens that he was unable to make the deadlines for his June installments of The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. The next month, Charles Dickens writes a heartfelt apology to his fans and explains that his grief left him unable to finish. This edition is carefully propped open for visitors to read next to Mary's ring that Dickens wore until the end of his life.

Although you may have missed an invitation to a Dickens' family dinner by about 150 years, you may still have the pleasure of his company for lunch. Taking the tube from the Russell Square station to the Temple station allows you to meander through London's historic alleyways and discover Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese Tavern, Dickens' favorite haunt. A tavern site since 1538, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Arthur Conan Doyle, WB Yeats, Teddy Roosevelt, and Mark Twain were also well known visitors. As you walk the cobblestones to the entrance you might hear the click-click-click of boots and the whirling of capes of those long past scrambling to escape London's bone chilling winter. Upon entering, peer left into the Chop Room and you may see Charles Dickens next to the roasting fireplace, hunched over in the corner, furiously scribbling out and rewriting passages of his newest venture.

As the restaurant is well hidden from the touristy hustle and bustle of London, we treaded semi-cautiously and decided not to request to sit at Dickens' favorite seat and headed downstairs to the Cellar Bar, originally part of the guest house of a 13^th century Carmelite monastery. After descending a staircase even too small for my 5'1" frame, we entered a room with walls splashed with old yellowed paint discolored from centuries of smoke. Small tables and chairs are set into arch nooks and enough lighting is provided in order for you to find your plate of traditional English fare. Finish out your afternoon by stopping in at historic Twinings Tea, taking in a lunchtime organ concert at the Temple church, a setting used in Dan Brown's Davinci Code, and head over to Covent Garden for some eclectic window shopping and people watching!

Flip the pages back another 250 years and travel from Dickens' London to the days of the famous ink and quill duelists William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. Take the tube to London Bridge station and sneak up quietly on their former playground. Listen carefully for the drunken laughs and cackles of those sinful actors and playgoers while walking through this once-seedy Southwark neighborhood. Imagine the crowds pouring into the streets after being cramped in the play yards, sunstroked after an afternoon of egging on the young men caked in makeup and donning curled wigs to portray the heroine. Area entertainment not only included plays with political undertones but bearbaiting - a "sport" in which the audience would watch bears tied to stakes fight off packs of dogs with their paws. A night out might end with a near missed street fight among the variety of street urchins of the day followed by a beer and a prostitute on your lap at the Anchor Inn.

You might mistakenly pass by the physically disappointing original site of Shakespeare' Globe, his second play house � now home to apartment complexes and a paved driveway that includes a partial outline of the original dimensions of the building. This pathetic monument would not have surprised Shakespeare who may have responded with "Is this a dagger which I see before me..." (Macbeth). In his day, Shakespeare was subjected to the whims of the monarch who censored his work for political undertones, while at the same time treating him like a secret lover; inviting him to court to perform his plays while condescending him on the streets of London. A visit to the theater for London Puritans was not deemed an aristocratic affair but akin to a visit to today's stripclub scene.

Actors were considered vagabonds as they traveled the countryside looking for work. An "act for the punishment of vagabonds" in 1572 forced all playwrights and actors to be under the literal seal of approval from nobility in order to be considered legal. The Master of the Revels, a position created to maintain control over the theaters, had to read all plays before they were performed and stamp his consent in the playhouse text. Therefore, I doubt that Shakespeare himself felt a stab in the back; I believe that he sighed with relief that finally the citizens of London peacefully walked by his old stomping grounds without arresting his actors for treason and closing down his theater. You see, the former and latter were what allowed Shakespeare to build the Globe in the first place.

An infamous showing of the play The Isle of Dogs in 1597 contained criticisms of the city aldermen and government and was considered so offensive that all London play houses were shut down and leases were not renewed. Unable to work in London or tour, Shakespeare and his company found a very creative loophole. The land on which the Theatre (Shakespeare's first playhouse) stood was owned by a Mr. Giles Allen. However, the timbers that made up the playhouse were owned by the Mr. James Burbage, manager of the Theatre and father to Richard Burbage, a good friend of William Shakespeare and famous actor of the day. So, taking advantage of the unusual thawing of the Thames River, the actors snuck into the Theatre in the middle of the night, quietly dismantled it before dawn, and walked the pieces across the river to rebuild it before the government could stop them as poor Mr. Allen was away on vacation. Not only did they find a way to work again, they also escaped from the sanctions of the government as the otherside of the Thames at the time was technically not London.

While Shakespeare may not have been bothered by this lack of interest from Londoners to preserve his contribution to literature, American actor/director Sam Wanamaker was and began a 50 year journey to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe. He was not alone in his admiration for William Shakespeare; on your approach to this awesome reproduction, notice the walkway of engravings documenting the support of international philanthropists who honor the historical value of Shakespeare's verses as well as their ability to transcend time. Before your tour take the time to walk through the exhibits that range from costumes used for present day productions that are hand sewn as they would have been in Shakespeare's time to artifacts found upon excavating the original Globe site such as clay money pots, stuffed with coins, stored away, and then smashed open when a withdrawal was desired. Also included are reproductions of Southwark area maps from the 1600's and a miniature scene of the events surrounding the building of the original Globe theater.

Instead of having to wait through tiresome rhetoric used as a stalling mechanism, you are immediately led into the theater at the beginning of your tour - talk about instant gratification! Back in the day if you were on a budget, the seats would have been out of the question! Instead you would have been sentenced to stand hours in the play yard, unprotected from nature as there is no ceiling in a traditional playhouse, next to drunk and unruly men relieving themselves on the yard floor made of broken hazelnut pieces. But, you may have been able to become part of the show as often audience members were chosen to participate in party scenes and led the crowd's jeers against the "bad guy." As exciting as it was to build the original Globe, its demise was equally as thrilling; in fact it went out with a bang � literally. During the first production of Henry VIII, a cannon was lit and discharged. However there was a misfire and the thatch roof of the Globe caught on fire. Nobody was hurt unless you count the pride of the audience member whose enflamed pants were extinguished with a beer. The Globe burnt to the ground in less than an hour, was rebuilt in 1614 and eventually demolished in 1644.

So there is more to literature than the bound pages themselves - there is the historic fingerprint of the joys, tragedies, and self-doubts of the author as well as the current events of their time that lend humanity to each classic piece of literature. You may be more empathetic to the plight of the characters of David Copperfield knowing that the author suffered similarly. The next time you are able to see a performance of Henry VIII you may feel the need to look up at the ceiling to double check that the roof is not on fire after the cannons are shot. Many of England's writers would not know in their lifetime the joy and admiration that they had inspired in centuries of readers. But if you end your book tour of London at Westminster Abbey's Poet's Corner, you will see the graves and memorials built in world wide admiration for artists such as Robert Browing, Rudyard Kipling, Charles Dickens, William Wordsworth, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, T.S. Eliot, Jane Austen, and Charlotte, Emily and Anne Bronte.

There is a fine saying that you are only good as the company that you keep; why not pull that dusty, musty copy of Oliver Twist off the shelf and emerse yourself in the sights and smells of eighteenth century London, or attend a showing of Shakespeare's Richard II and chuckle at the thought of Queen Elizabeth, corseted into her finery, wearing a tight, polite smile, steaming at the thought that she is being mocked by the playwrights she invited to her palace. As the ruins are evidence of Rome's contribution to democratic society, so are the works of literature housed and nursed by the British Library evidence of the honor that these artists have brought to England.

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