Současný britský spisovatel Peter Ackroyd (*1949) se inspiroval životním příběhem Oscara Wilda (1854-1900) a ve formě fiktivní autobiografie napsal Wildeův životopis, jehož mottem by mohl být Wildeův proslulý výrok Odolám všemu s výjimkou pokušení!. Oscar Wilde si deník píše v pařížském hotelu d´Alsace během několika posledních měsíců života. Deníkové zápisy zahrnují dobu od 9. srpna do 30. listopadu 1900. Wilde tu přehlíží celý svůj život, přemýšlí o svém díle, jež mělo tak oslnivý úspěch, i o vztazích k mužům, jež ho dovedly...

This third volume in Peter Ackroyd's series is a companion volume to 'Chaucer' and 'Turner'. It describes the life of Sir Isaac Newton who formulated calculus, hit upon the idea of gravity and did experiments which showed that white light was made up of different coloured rays.

Edgar Allan Poe's life (1809--1849) was gothic, mysterious, theatrical and fatally flawed -- in short, an ideal subject for one of Peter Ackroyd's brilliantly concise, dramatic and immensely readable biographies.
Edgar Allan Poe has been claimed as the forerunner of modern fantasy, and credited with the invention of psychological dramas (long before Freud), science fiction (before H.G. Wells and Jules Verne), and the detective story (before Arthur Conan Doyle), as well as influencing European Symbolism and Surrealism.
Peter Ackroyd's biography of Poe opens with his end, his final days...

"Dickens" was a landmark biography when first published in 1990. This specially edited shorter edition takes the reader into the life of one of the world's greatest writers. It is published to tie-in with a 3-part BBC-TV series on Dickens with Peter Ackroyd, part drama (based on Ackroyd's Simon Callow play), part documentary, part biography.

Features the stories ranging from Beowulf to King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, via Chaucer and Shakespeare, to the Bronte sisters, 'Alice through the Looking Glass' and 'Lord of the Rings'. This work takes the reader from medieval mystery plays to music hall and pantomime; painting; and music, with Purcell and Vaughan Williams.

Mary Lamb is confined by the restrictions of domesticity: her father is losing his mind, her mother watchful and hostile. The great solace of her life is her brother Charles, an aspiring writer. It is no surprise when Mary falls for the bookseller's son, antiquarian William Ireland, from whom Charles has purchased a book. But this is no ordinary book -- it once belonged to William Shakespeare himself. And William Ireland with his green eyes and red hair is no ordinary young man.
In The Lambs of London, Peter Ackroyd brilliantly creates an urban world of scholars and entrepreneurs, a world...

Fakes, forgeries and plagiarism abound in Ackroyd's brilliant historical novel, set in the 19th century during the excavation of the Bronze Age site of Troy.
"I cannot wait to bring you to the plain of Troy. To show you the place where Hector and Achilles fought. To show you the palace of Priam. And the walls where the Trojan women watched their warriors in battle with the invader. It will stir your blood, Sophia."
Sophia Chrysanthis is only 16 when the German archaeologist, Herr Obermann, comes wooing: he wants a Greek bride who knows her Homer. Sophia passes his test, and soon she...

Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a village near Oxford. The coroner's office provides corpses, but they are often damaged & putrefying. Then he makes contact with the Doomsday Men - the resurrectionists. Perfect specimens are hard to come by, until one day he is brought a handsome young man, & his work can truly begin.

Sister Clarice, a nun in the House of St Mary at Clerkenwell, experiences visions. This novel begins with The Nun's Tale, and continues with the The Friar's Tale, The Merchant's Tale and The Clerk's Tale, building a portrait of medieval London, where people are disenchanted by the Church.

Rapier-sharp, witty, intriguing and mysterious: a new novel from Peter Ackroyd, set in 1960s London.
"Three Brothers" follows the fortunes of Harry, Daniel and Sam Hanway, born on a post-war council estate in Camden Town. Marked out from the start by curious coincidence, each boy is forced to make his own way in the world -- a world of dodgy deals and big business, of criminal gangs and crooked landlords, of newspaper magnates, back-biters and petty thieves.
London is the backdrop and the connecting fabric of these three lives, reinforcing Ackroyd's grand theme that place and history...