The Literary and Cultural Spaces of Restoration London

In September 1666 the Great Fire destroyed four-fifths of the ancient commercial City of London. All that had been familiar settled known was suddenly swept away and Londoners faced an emptiness that was not only physical but also historical social financial and conceptual. In this study Cynthia Wall reads the literature of Restoration and early-eighteenth-century London in the context of other texts such as sermons royal proclamations maps and topographies and shows how literature attempts to reinvest the city with modern meaning and create new spaces for new genres.