Chatterton (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

CHATTERTON is set simultaneously in three centuries. In modern London, a young poet, Charles Wychwood, suspects another “forgery”--a suicide faked by Chatterton to further his “ghostwriting” career. An aging novelist, Harriet Scrope, who has plagiarized several plots from obscure old novels, eccentrically schemes to “borrow” Wychwood’s research on the topic. Meanwhile, in 1856, the artist Henry Wallis paints his celebrated picture (now in the Tate Gallery) of young Chatterton lying dead. Wallis’ model is the then unknown novelist George Meredith, with whose wife the painter soon runs away. Finally, the living Chatterton also takes part in Ackroyd’s narrative, revealing another version of the facts.

Though widely separated in time, these characters often echo one another’s words and actions--an Ackroyd trademark--and seem to exert mutual influence. Ironically, the slowly dying Wychwood believes that he has evidence that Chatterton did not die. He, in turn, is comforted by Chatterton’s spirit. Meredith, posing as the dead poet for Wallis, gains the bitter life experience that turns him into a true poet. He is on the verge of suicide when Chatterton’s ghost appears and dissuades him. In the end, Chatterton, Meredith, and Wychwood, now all dead, join hands.

Ackroyd’s forte is imagined extension of actual historic situations, and this enables him in CHATTERTON to raise large questions that concern all eras--such as that of artistic (and personal) authenticity, and the nature of success and failure--while suggesting that the past is still a living force. These serious explorations, however, do not prevent the novel from delivering a liberal dose of comedy through some contemporary fiction’s most eccentric characters.

Sources for Further Study

The Atlantic. CCLXI, February, 1988, p. 86.

British Book News. August, 1987, p. 523.

Contemporary Review. CCLI, October, 1987, p. 213.

History Today. XXXVIII, January, 1988, p. 53.

Illustrated London News. CCLXXV, November, 1987, p. 91.

Library Journal. CXIII, January, 1988, p. 96.

London Review of Books. IX, September 3, 1987, p. 17.

Los Angeles Times Book Review. February 14, 1988, p. 3.

The New York Review of Books. XXXV, April 14, 1988, p. 15.

The New York Times. CXXXVII, December 31, 1987, p. 17.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIII, January 17, 1988, p. 1.

The New Yorker. LXIII, February 8, 1988, p. 100.

Time. CXXXI, January 18, 1988, p. 65.

The Times Literary Supplement. September 11, 1987, p. 976.

Tribune Books. January 17, 1988, p. 6.

The Wall Street Journal. CCXII, January 19, 1988, p. 26.