Necropolis

London and Its Dead

Catharine Arnold

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Year: 2008
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781847394934
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

From Roman burial rites to the horrors of the plague, from the founding of the great Victorian cemeteries to the development of cremation and the current approach of metropolitan society towards death and bereavement -- including more recent trends to displays of collective grief and the cult of mourning, such as that surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales -- NECROPOLIS: LONDON AND ITS DEAD offers a vivid historical narrative of this great city's attitude to going the way of all flesh.

As layer upon layer of London soil reveals burials from pre-historic and medieval times, the city is revealed as one giant grave, filled with the remains of previous eras -- pagan, Roman, medieval, Victorian. This fascinating blend of archaeology, architecture and anecdote includes such phenomena as the rise of the undertaking trade and the pageantry of state funerals; public executions and bodysnatching.

Ghoulishly entertaining and full of fascinating nuggets of information, Necropolis leaves no headstone unturned in its exploration of our changing attitudes to the deceased among us. Both anecdotal history and cultural commentary, Necropolis will take its place alongside classics of the city such as Peter Ackroyd's LONDON.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Map
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 A Pagan Place: Celtic Golgotha and the Roman Cemeteries
• Chapter 2 Danse Macabre: London and the Black Death
• Chapter 3 Memento Mori: The Theatre of Death
• Chapter 4 Pestilence: Diary of a Plague Year
• Chapter 5 Et in Arcadia Ego: A Vision of Elysian Fields
• Chapter 6 Gatherings from Graveyards: The Dead are Killing the Living
• Chapter 7 Victorian Valhallas: The Development of London’s Cemeteries
• Chapter 8 Great Gardens of Sleep: Death Moves to the Suburbs
• Chapter 9 The People Who Invented Death: The Victorian Funeral
• Chapter 10 The Vale of Tears: The Victorian Cult of Mourning
• Chapter 11 Up in Smoke: The Development of Cremation
• Chapter 12 Our Darkest Hours: World War and the Decline of Mourning
• Acknowledgements
• About the Author
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Web Resources
• Index
• Copyright