Good lines: summer in London

 

     "It was the sort of moment when, on a hot evening, London gives an indolent sigh of despair. There is a pointlessness of summer London more awful than anything which fogs or early afternoon twilights are able to evoke, a summer mood of yawning and glazing eyes and little nightmare-ridden sleeps in bored and desperate rooms. With this ennui, evil comes creeping through the city, the evil of indifference and sleepiness and lack of care. At such a time the long-fought temptation is wearily yielded to, and the long-dreamt-of crime is with shoulder-shrugging casualness committed at last."
From The Nice and the Good by Iris Murdoch.

I hope London readers will tell us if that is an accurate description - Edinburgh's climate is, of course, far too brisk for such degeneracy!

Comments

[Claire (Paperback Reader)]

I think the summation is quite accurate.
Slightly preferable to the non-existent summer of my home-town Glasgow, however!

[Naomi Saffery]

I am currently experiencing the 'pointlessness of summer London' - the dirty, muggy air in this claustrophobic city is currently unbearable. But this only heightens the joy when autumn arrives - crisp, golden and the tourists go home!

[Barbara MacLeod]

Speaking of Edinburgh, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week is currently offering Hannah Gordon reading Martin Stannard's Biography of Muriel Spark (abridged).

Reference is http://feeds.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lxjlq.

[Dark Puss]

I have just returned to London from a short visit to Geneva and while I do indeed understand the statement by Murdoch, echoed by Naomi Saffrey, I'll not go along with either the "claustrophobic city" nor "bored and desperate" comments. I came down here almost 30 years ago from my home town of Edinburgh and quite honestly I thought I'd hate London and not be here much longer than it took to do my PhD. Actually I find that I like it more and more, though perhaps this is heightened by what I see as some rather depressing changes in Edinburgh which I visit fairly frequently (Cornflower's weblog is of course a very honorable exception). Somewhat to my surprise I do find myself, even on hot sticky nights, agreeing with Johnson “when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life”. Autumn, and indeed Spring, are the best times for weather in London, so I do concur with Naomi there.

Cat on a hot tin roof

[Australian Online Bookshop]

What wonderful language. It almost makes me feel like I'm back there. Murdoch was such a masterful writer. One of my favorites

[Lindsay]

A rather Mediterranean view of London, I'd have thought. And a city notoriously called Auld Reekie might remember the proverb about the pot and the kettle!