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Moby-Dick:For the Led Zeppelin song, see Moby Dick (song).
Moby Dick (song)
Moby-Dick – the hyphen in the title is present in the original edition – is a novel by Herman Melville. It was first published by Richard Bentley in expurgated form (in three volumes) as The Whale in London on 18 October 1851, and then in full, by Harper and Brothers, as Moby-Dick; or, The Whale in New York on 14 November 1851, in a single volume. Moby-Dick's style was revolutionary for its time: descriptions in intricate, imaginative, and varied prose of the methods of whale-hunting, the adventure, and the narrator's reflections interweave the story's themes with a huge swath of Western literature, history, religion, mythology, philosophy, and science. Although its initial reception was unfavorable, Moby-Dick is now considered to be one of the canonical novels in the English language, and has secured Melville's reputation in the first rank of American writers. The novel is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Background
Moby-Dick follows the hardy crew of the Pequod, led by Captain Ahab, a Quaker, on a whaling expedition that takes them around the world. The expedition soon degenerates into a monomaniacal hunt for the legendary "Great White Whale", as Ahab seeks revenge on the animal that cost him a leg.
The plot was inspired in part by the November 20, 1820, sinking of the whaleship Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts). The ship went down 2,000 miles (3,700 km) from the western coast of South America after it was attacked by an 80-ton Sperm Whale. The story was recounted by several of the eight survivors, including first mate Owen Chase in his Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. Moby-Dick also undoubtedly draws on Melville's experiences as a sailor, and in particular on his voyage on the whaler Acushnet in 1841–1842. Melville left no other account of his career as a whaler, so we can only guess as to the extent to which Moby-Dick is a roman à clef (like his previous novels Typee, Omoo, Redburn, and White-Jacket), and how much is wholly invented. However, it is known that there was a real-life albino sperm whale, known as Mocha Dick, that lived near the island of Mocha off Chile´s southern coast, several decades before Melville wrote his book. Mocha Dick, like Moby Dick in Melville's story, had escaped countless times from the attacks of whalers (and consequently had dozens of harpoons in his back), whom he would often attack with premeditated ferocity. Mocha Dick was eventually killed in the 1830s. No one knows what prompted Melville to change the name "Mocha" to "Moby," but given that Mocha Dick was an albino sperm whale, it is obvious that Melville used him as a basis for his book.
Characters
The crew-members of the Pequod are carefully drawn stylizations of human types and habits; critics have often described them as a "self-enclosed universe."
Ishmael is the name the narrator takes for himself, it is unclear whether or not this is his actual name. "Call me Ishmael" is one of the best-known opening sentences in English language literature. A newcomer to whaling, Ishmael serves as our eyes and ears aboard the Pequod. He is, at the end, the only witness alive to tell the tale. Ishmael was the name of the first son of Abraham in the Old Testament. The Biblical Ishmael was born to a slave woman because Abraham believed his wife, Sarah, to be infertile; when God granted her a son, Isaac, Ishmael and his mother were turned out of Abraham's household. The name has come to symbolize orphans and social outcasts. From the beginning, Ishmael tells us that he turns to the sea out of a sense of alienation from human society. Ishmael, like Melville, has a rich literary background that he brings to bear on his shipmates and their adventure.
Ishmael resembles Melville himself in many ways, as well as the narrator of Melville's White-Jacket: The World in a Man-of-War. All are literary, reflective types who see their shipmates as exemplars of human nature and the universe, and tell their stories with a wealth of philosophical reflection. "White Jacket" is – as symbolized by the garment that gives him his name –very much an outsider to his crew. Ishmael himself sometimes completely vanishes into Moby Dick: toward the end of the novel it can be easy to forget that it is being told by a first-person narrator and not simply an omniscient narrator. In many ways the Pequod is a ship of outcasts that manage to form a complete society among themselves. Ishmael is perhaps its voice, or its self-consciousness.
Ahab
Ahab is the captain of the whaling ship Pequod. Having lost a leg to Moby Dick on their last meeting, Captain Ahab is consumed with the desire for revenge. He has a peg leg made of whalebone, and a livid white scar that runs from head to toe and looks like the mark which a bolt of lightning leaves in the bark of a tree. Contrary to what many readers believe, the scar down Ahab's side was not given to him by Moby Dick, it was actually caused by a lightning strike ("clear spirit of clear fire", see Chapter 119).
There are two Ahabs named in the Bible, one a King of Israel, the other a blasphemous prophet delivered by God to be killed by Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. The captain is named after the king, who is described in the novel as "bloodthirsty."
Moby Dick
Moby Dick is a livid white sperm whale who has been attacked by multiple whaling ships, but has been able to destroy his attackers. Melville spelled the whale's name without a hyphen, but used a hyphen in the title of the book.
Mates
Starbuck, the young First Mate of the Pequod, is a thoughtful and intellectual Quaker.
:"Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organization seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than from ignorance... [H]is far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child, tend[ed] to bend him ... from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. "I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale." By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward." --Moby-Dick, Ch. 26
Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal that lacks the capacity to understand such human concepts. Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. He is, however, too weak and ineffectual to persuade Ahab or the crew to abandon the quest. Starbucks Coffee is partly named after him; see [http://radio.weblogs.com/0118865/stories/2004/08/03/theConciseAndCorrectExplanationOfTheStarbucksNamingMyth.html].
Stubb is the second mate of the Pequod, who always seems to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. "Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests."--Moby-Dick Ch. 27
Flask is the third mate of the Pequod. "A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered."--Moby-Dick Ch. 27
Harpooners
Queequeg the harpooner is a "savage" cannibal from a fictional island in the south seas. The son of the chief of his tribe, he befriends Ishmael in Nantucket before they leave port. Queequeg is a skilled harpooner on Starbuck's boat. His behaviour is both civilized and savage.
Tashtego is described as a "savage" -- a Native American harpooner. The personification of the hunter, he has turned from hunting land animals to hunting whales. Tashtego is the harpooner on Stubb's harpoon boat.
Daggoo is a gigantic "savage" African harpooner with a noble bearing and grace. Daggoo is the harpooner on Flask's harpoon boat.
Fedallah is the sinister leader of Ahab's secret harpoon boat crew. He is of Persian descent ("Parsee"). "[T]all and swart, with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head." Moby-Dick Ch.48
Symbolism
All of the members of the Pequod's crew have biblical-sounding, improbable or descriptive names, and the narrator deliberately avoids specifying the exact time of the events and some other similar details. These together suggest that perhaps we should understand the narrator--and not just Melville--to be deliberately casting his tale in an epic and allegory mode.
Ahab's desire to pursue Moby Dick is contrasted with Starbuck's desire to run a normal commercial whaling ship. It can be seen as the clash of idealism and pragmatism.
The white whale itself, for example, has been read as symbolically representative of good and evil, as has Ahab. The white whale has also been seen as a metaphor for the elements of life that are out of our control.
The Pequod's quest to hunt down Moby Dick itself is also widely viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate goal in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. The only escape from Ahab's vision is seen through the Pequod's occasional encounters with other ships, called gams. Readers could consider what exactly Ahab will do if he, in fact, succeeds in his quest: having accomplished his ultimate goal, what else is there left for him to do? Thus, the outcome of the quest is irrelevant, and actually completing the journey is not the goal - it's the "thrill of the chase" that's important. Similarly, Melville may be implying that people in general need something to reach for in life, or contrariwise that such a goal can destroy one if allowed to overtake all other concerns.
gam
gam
Selected adaptations and references
- Jules Verne's 1870 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea references a hunt for a dangerous ship-sinking "Moby-Dick", which turns out to be the Nautilus.
- A 1926 silent movie, The Sea Beast, starring John Barrymore as a heroic Ahab with a fiancee and an evil brother, loosely based on the novel. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017354/ IMDb link]) Remade as Moby Dick in 1930. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021149/ IMDb link])
- Moby Dick Rehearsed a 1955 television "play within a play" directed by Orson Welles. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349829/ IMDb link])
- Moby Duck is a character created for Disney's line of comic books, a relative of Donald and the other ducks in the Disney mythos.
- A 1956 film directed by John Huston and starring Gregory Peck, with screenplay by Ray Bradbury. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049513/ IMDb link])
- Tom and Jerry meet `Dicky Moe` in a 1961 MGM cartoon of the same name.
- Sam Peckinpah's 1965 film Major Dundee, with Charlton Heston and Richard Harris, recycles many of the story's plotlines and characters into a Western setting.
- "The Doomsday Machine" is a Star Trek episode written by Norman Spinrad that is loosely based on the Moby Dick story.
- "Obsession (Star Trek)" is another Star Trek episode where Captain Kirk tries to destroy a vampire-like cloud creature that attacked and killed his captain and his crew on his old ship, the Farragut. Kirk was like Ahab and the creature resembled Moby Dick. However, the story ends with the crew learning about the creature, its menace to known space and deciding that Kirk was fundamentally correct in hunting it.
- Nova, a 1968 science fiction novel by Samuel R. Delany, features a starship voyage with a misfit crew, and an obsessive and facially scarred captain strongly resembling Ahab.
- The Wind Whales of Ishmael, a 1971 in literature science fiction sequel by Philip José Farmer, transports Ishmael to the far future.
- "Moby Dick" was an instrumental recording by Led Zeppelin featuring a drum solo by John Bonham.
- "Nantucket Sleighride" was a recording by Mountain describing a ship's crew "in search of the mighty sperm whale" and referring to "Starbuck sharpening his harpoon".
- Jaws was a 1975 film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the novel by Peter Benchley. Actor Robert Shaw played Quint, a crusty old Ahab-like sea captain who was obsessed with hunting down a white shark.
- Bruce Sterling's 1977 novel Involution Ocean is a science fictional pastiche of Moby-Dick.
- Moby Dick, a one-man show featuring Jack Aranson, who played 13 characters from the novel, was filmed in 1978.The director was Hollywood veteran Director Paul Stanley.Paul Stanley DGA directed over 100 eposodic TV series over a period of 20 years including Hallmark Hall of Fame. According to the film's producer John Robert this version is the closest to Herman Melville's soaring almost Shakespearen dialogue.Critic Elloit Norton said "As Ahab,Mr Aranson takes on stature. It is a brilliant performance."Jack Aranson's MOBY DICK was called by TIME magazine as one of the top (5) one-man shows of all time."To devise a version of [Moby Dick] as a one-man, 90 minute theatre piece comes under the heading 'They said it coundn't be done.' Jack Aranson has done it superbly...With this one-man show. Jack Aranson has joined a select and illuminating company, that of John Geilgud in 'Ages of Man,' Siobnan McKenna in 'Here are Ladies,' Emelyn Williams as Charles Dickens and Hal Holbrook in 'Mark Twain Tonight.' 'Moby Dick is the most formidable task of the lot."-T.E.Kalim The newly re-mastered DVD was released by Amazon Thanksgiving day 11-24-05.([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0452823/ IMDb link])
- Rick Veitch's Abraxas and the Earthman (serialized in Marvel's Epic Magazine) was practically influenced by Moby Dick.
- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) borrows liberally from Moby-Dick. Khan and his first officer Joachim are based on Ahab and Starbuck, and many of Khan's lines are taken almost verbatim from the novel, a paperback copy of which is seen on a shelf in Khan's exile quarters at the film's beginning. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084726/ IMDb link])
- In Star Trek: First Contact (1996) Captain Jean-Luc Picard's fight against the Borg is compared to that of Captain Ahab against Moby Dick. ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117731/ IMDb link])
- Moby Dick! The Musical, a 1990s West End musical about a girls' boarding school production of the classic tale.
- Moby Dick, a 1998 television movie starring Patrick Stewart as Ahab ([http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120756/ IMDb link]).
- Capitaine Achab a 2004 French movie directed by Philippe Ramos, with Valérie Crunchant and Frédéric Bonpart ([http://imdb.com/title/tt0398831/ IMDb link]).
- In the late 1990s, performance artist Laurie Anderson produced the multimedia stage presentation Songs and Stories From Moby Dick. Several songs from this project were included on her 2001 in music CD, Life on a String.
- Rakhnam, a purple arcwhale which threatens the party at various points in the 2001 video game Skies of Arcadia, is an homage to Moby-Dick (his name in the Japanese version of the game is "Mobys").
- Francis Macbeth composed a five-movement suite for wind band named 'Of Sailors and Whales' which is based on scenes from the book Moby-Dick. The bombastic suite begins with the quiet Ishmael, which builds to a heavy climax. Queequeg follows with a flitting melody and ends with bleak chords and finally a quick note at the end. The middle movement Father Mapple is supposed to be a hymn that an imaginary man sings during the voyage. This movement is actually sung by the band, and begins very wearily but has a rather strong ending. Next is Ahab and this movement readily depicts the captain. The same is true of The White Whale, the final movement of the suite and by far one of the most fearsome pieces composed for a wind band. Each movement is preceded by some text supposed to be read to give an indication of the movement.
- The musician Moby is a descendant of Herman Melville.
Herman Melville
- The American heavy metal band Mastodon released a 2004 album named Leviathan, which contained lyrics based on Moby Dick. Some song titles include "I Am Ahab" and "Seabeast".
- In the comic book series Bone by Jeff Smith, the protagonist (named Fone Bone) is a great admirer of Moby-Dick and refers to it frequently. When he tries to read passages from the book to his friends, they immediately fall asleep. His dreams contain a great deal of Moby-Dick imagery, and when he and his companions pass through a region in which their thoughts become reality, his cousin Phoney suddenly gains a peg-leg, a facial scar and a costume like Ahab's.
- The word Moby appears to be an invention of Melville's. It has passed into colloquial English as a rough synonym for "very large".
- In Marvel Comics' Livewires the ultimate goal of Project Livewire is to seek out and destroy the most secret of all black ops projects, the one they refer to as "The White Whale", because they don't actually know its real codename
- The New England Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts hosts a Moby Dick Marathon [http://www.whalingmuseum.org/calendar/index_cal.html] reading of the novel every January 3rd to January 4th. The next Marathon (2006) will be the 10th anniversary of this event. Volunteer readers are alloted 10 minute time slots over the approximately 25 hours it takes to read this novel aloud. Among the hundreds of Moby Dick fans who flock to this event, descendants of Melville attend every year.
- Moby Lick was a fictitious character in Mattel's action figure line known as the "Street Sharks", that later appeared in the animated series based on the toyline. While it's name is an obvious pun on Melville's work, the character itself was a humanoid orca or killer whale with a huge tongue.
- Roger Zelazny's short story "The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth" is inspired by Moby-Dick. It tells the story of a whaling crew on the seas of Venus, hunting a giant Icthyosaur.
- The novel Ahab's Wife, or the Star Gazer, by Sena Jeter Naslund, is a novel about Ahab's wife, who is briefly mentioned in Moby-Dick. In the novel, the heroine meets dozens of famous people, including Frederick Douglass, Margaret Fuller, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Maria Mitchell, and even Henry James as a precocious 5-year-old.
External links
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- [http://www.online-literature.com/melville/mobydick/ Searchable full text of Moby-Dick available here]
- [http://www.litquotes.com/quote_title_resp.php?TName=Moby%20Dick Quotations from Moby Dick]
- [http://www.amlit.com/mobydick/chap0.html Moby Dick; or, The Whale] at [http://www.amlit.com/]
- [http://www.allaboutstuff.com/Out_at_Sea/Moby_Dick.asp Moby Dick - Mocha Dick] - Article
- (1930) - John Barrymore .... Captain Ahab
- (1956) - Gregory Peck .... Captain Ahab
- (1978) - Jack Aranson .... 13 characters
- (1998) - Patrick Stewart .... Captain Ahab
Category:1851 books
Category:Cetaceans
Category:Fictional cetaceans
Category:Moby-Dick
Category:1930 films
Category:1978 films
Category:1956 films
Category:1998 films
Category:Films based on novels
ja:白鯨
Moby Dick (song)
"Moby Dick" is a Led Zeppelin instrumental song from their second album. The song has no relation to the book by Herman Melville. This was drummer John Bonham's showcase song on their tours through 1977. Guitarist Jimmy Page and bassist John Paul Jones only play at the very beginning and the very end of the song. Singer Robert Plant did not play at all, and in concert would introduce Bonham to the crowd before the song started. When played live, his drum solos would last as little as 12 minutes or as long as 30 minutes, while the rest of the band would leave the stage. During that time the rest of the band would be rumored to be doing everything from smoking marijuana to spending the time with groupies.
Drummer John Bonham would often throw his drumsticks into the crowd, and then do his majestic drum solo with his hands. He would often draw blood as a result.
This song helped establish Bonham as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time.
Fans often cite this song as the best part of the film The Song Remains the Same.
Category: 1969 songs
Category: Led Zeppelin songs
Herman Melville
Herman Melville (August 1 1819 – September 28 1891) was an American novelist, essayist, and poet. During his lifetime his early novels were popular, but his popularity declined later in his life. By the time of his death he had nearly been forgotten, but his masterpiece, Moby Dick, was "rediscovered."
Life
Herman Melville was born in New York City on August 1, 1819 as the third child to Allan and Maria Gansevoort Melvill (Maria would later add an 'e' to the surname), and received his early education in that city. One of his grandfathers, Major Thomas Melvill, participated in the Boston Tea Party. Another was General Peter Gansevoort who was acquainted with James Fenimore Cooper and defended Fort Stanwix in 1777. His father had described the young Melville as being somewhat slow as a child and Melville was also weakened by the scarlet fever, permanently affecting his eyesight. The family importing business went bankrupt in 1830, and the family went to Albany, New York, with Herman entering Albany Academy. Prior to that year, he attended Columbia Grammar and Preparatory School in Manhattan. After the death of his father in 1832, the family (with eight children) moved to the village of Lansingburgh on the Hudson River. Herman and his brother Gansevoort were forced to work to help support the family. There Herman remained until 1835, when he attended the Albany Classical School for some months.
Melville's roving disposition, and a desire to support himself independently of family assistance, led him to seek work as a surveyor on the Erie Canal. This effort failed, and his brother helped him get a job as a cabin boy in a New York vessel bound for Liverpool. He made the voyage, visited London, and returned in the same ship. Redburn: His First Voyage, published in 1849, is partly founded on the experiences of this trip. A good part of the succeeding three years, from 1837 to 1840, was occupied with school-teaching. At any rate, he once more signed a ship's articles, and on January 1, 1841, sailed from New Bedford, Massachusetts harbour in the whaler Acushnet, bound for the Pacific Ocean and the sperm fishery. The vessel sailed around Cape Horn and traveled to the South Pacific. He has left very little direct information as to the events of this eighteen months' cruise, although his whaling romance, Moby-Dick; or, the Whale, probably gives many pictures of life on board the Acushnet. Melville decided to abandon the vessel on reaching the Marquesas Islands. He lived among the natives of the island for several weeks and the narrative of Typee and its sequel, Omoo, tell this tale. After a sojourn at the Society Islands, Melville shipped for Honolulu. There he remained for four months, employed as a clerk. He joined the crew of the American frigate United States, which reached Boston, stopping on the way at one of the Peruvian ports, in October of 1844. Upon his return, he recorded his experiences in the books, Typee, Omoo, Mardi, Redburn, and White-Jacket, published in the following six years.
Melville married Elizabeth Shaw (daughter of noted jurist, Lemuel Shaw) on August 4,
1847. The Melvilles resided in New York City until 1850, when they purchased Arrowhead, a farm house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (which is today a museum).
Here Melville remained for thirteen years, occupied with his writing, and managing his farm. There he befriended Nathaniel Hawthorne who lived in the area. There he wrote Moby Dick and Pierre, works that did not achieve the same popular and critical success as his earlier books.
While at Pittsfield, because of financial reasons, Melville was induced to enter the lecture field. From 1857 to 1860 he spoke at lyceums, chiefly speaking of his adventures in the South Seas. He also became a customs inspector for the City of New York, a post he held for 19 years. After an illness that lasted a number of months, Herman Melville died at his home in New York City early on the morning of September 28, 1891. He was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York. In his later life, his works no longer accessible to a broad audience, he was not able to make money from writing. He depended on his wife's family for money along with his other attempts at employment. His short novel Billy Budd, an unpublished manuscript at the time of his death, was published in 1924 and later turned into an opera by Benjamin Britten, a play, and a film by Peter Ustinov.
Literature
Moby-Dick has become Melville's most famous work and is often considered one of the greatest American novels. It was dedicated to Melville's friend Nathaniel Hawthorne. Melville also wrote White-Jacket, Typee, Omoo, Pierre, The Confidence-Man and many short stories and works of various genres. His short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" is among his most important pieces, and has been considered a precursor to Existentialist and Absurdist literature. Melville is less well known as a poet and did not publish poetry until late in life; after the Civil War, he published Battle-Pieces, which sold well. But again tending to outrun the tastes of his readers, Melville's epic length verse-narrative Clarel, about a student's pilgrimage to the Holy Land, was also quite unknown in his own time. His poetry is not as highly critically esteemed as his fiction.
Bibliography
Novels
- Typee: [http://wikisource.org/wiki/Typee] A Peep at Polynesian Life (1846)
- Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas (1847)
- Mardi: And a Voyage Thither (1849)
- Redburn: His First Voyage (1849)
- White-Jacket: or, The World in a Man-of-War (1850)
- Moby-Dick (1851)
- Pierre: or, The Ambiguities (1852)
- Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile (1855)
- The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade (1857)
- Billy Budd, Sailor: An Inside Narrative (1924)
Short Stories
- The Piazza Tales (1856)
- "The Piazza" -- the only story specifically written for the collection. (The other five had previously been published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine.)
- "Bartleby the Scrivener" [http://wikisource.org/wiki/Bartleby_the_Scrivener]
- "Benito Cereno"
- "The Lightning-Rod Man"
- "The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles"
- "The Bell-Tower"
Poetry
- Battle Pieces: And Aspects of the War (1866)
- Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (poems) (1876)
- John Marr and Other Sailors (1888)
- Timoleon (1891) [http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/16/ Online edition]
Uncollected
- Fragments from a Writing Desk, No. 1 (Published in Democratic Press, and Lansingburgh Advertiser, May 4 1839)
- Fragments from a Writing Desk, No. 2 (Published in Democratic Press, and Lansingburgh Advertiser, May 18 1839)
- Etchings of a Whaling Cruise (Published in New York Literary World, March 6 1847)
- Authentic Anecdotes of "Old Zack" (Published in Yankee Doodle, II, weekly (September 4 excepted) from July 24 to September 11 1847)
- Mr Parkman's Tour (Published in New York Literary World, March 31 1849)
- Cooper's New Novel (Published in New York Literary World, April 28 1849)
- A Thought on Book-Binding (Published in New York Literary World, March 16 1850)
- Hawthorne and His Mosses (Published in New York Literary World, August 17 and August 24 1850)
- Cock-A-Doodle-Doo! (Published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, December 1853)
- Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs (Published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, June 1854)
- The Happy Failure (Published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, July 1854)
- The Fiddler (Published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, September 1854)
- The Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids (Published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, April 1855)
- Jimmy Rose (Published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, November 1855)
- The 'Gees (Published in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, March 1856)
- I and My Chimney (Published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, March 1856)
- The Apple-Tree Table (Published in Putnam's Monthly Magazine, May 1856)
- Uncollected Prose (1856)
- The Two Temples (unpublished in Melville's lifetime)
External links
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- [http://www.bibliomania.com/0/0/36/1006 Billy Budd -- the whole text, free]
- [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2701 Moby-Dick] Gutenberg EText
- [http://www.glbtq.com/literature/melville_h.html Review by glbtq] - "Herman Melville reflects his homosexuality throughout his texts".
- [http://www.egwald.com/ubcstudent/theory/billybudd.php Poststructuralist analysis of Billy Budd] by Elmer G. Wiens
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ko:허먼 멜빌
ja:ハーマン・メルヴィル
London
London is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. As Europe's richest city, London produces 17% of the UK's GDP, and is one of the world's major business and financial centres. The capital of the former global empire, London is a leader in culture, communications, politics, finance, entertainment and the arts and has considerable influence worldwide.
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London is the most populous city in the European Union, with an estimated population on 1 January 2005 of 7,500,000 and a metropolitan area population of between 12 and 14 million. London's population includes an extremely diverse range of peoples, cultures, and religions, making it one of the most cosmopolitan, vibrant and energetic cities on earth. A resident of London is referred to as a Londoner. Over 300 languages are spoken in London, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Initially it was a Roman city and known as Londinium and then as Lunnainn, Llundain and Londain in the Scottish, Welsh and Irish languages respectively. London is known by these names in other languages.
London is the home of many global organisations, institutions and companies, and as such retains its leading role in global affairs. A city where cutting-edge meets tradition, London is a major tourist destination and transport hub. It has a great number of important buildings and iconic landmarks, including world-famous museums, theatres, concert halls, galleries, airports, sports stadia and palaces. London is one of the world's major global cities (along with New York City, Tokyo and Paris).
Defining London
Today, "London" usually refers to the conurbation known as Greater London, which is divided into thirty-two London Boroughs and the City of London and forms the London region of England. Historically, "London" referred to the square mile of the City of London at the conurbation's heart, from which the city grew. Between 1889 and 1965 it referred to the former County of London which covered the area now known as Inner London.
There are other definitions of "London" which cover varying areas, such as the London postal district; the area covered by the telephone area code 020; the area accessible by public transport using a Transport for London Travelcard; the area delimited by the M25 orbital motorway; the Metropolitan Police district; and the London commuter belt.
The coordinates of the centre of London (traditionally considered to be Charing Cross, near the junction of Trafalgar Square, the Strand, Whitehall and the Mall) are approximately . The Romans marked the centre of Londinium with the London Stone in the City.
Geography and climate
London Stone, with Green Park and St. James's Park to its right]]
Greater London covers an area of 609 square miles (1,579 km²). London is a port on the Thames, a navigable river. The river has had a major influence on the development of the city. London was founded on the north bank of the Thames and there was only a single bridge, London Bridge, for many centuries. As a result, the main focus of the city was on the north side of the Thames. When more bridges were built in the 18th century, the city expanded in all directions as the mostly flat or gently rolling countryside around the Thames floodplain presented no obstacle to growth. There are some hills in London, examples being Parliament Hill and Primrose Hill, but these provided fine prospects of the city centre without significantly affecting the directions of the spread of the city and London is therefore roughly circular.
The Thames was once a much broader, shallower river than it is today. It has been extensively embanked, and many of its London tributaries now flow underground. The Thames is a tidal river, and London is vulnerable to flooding. The threat has increased over time due to a slow but continuous rise in high water level and the slow 'tilting' of Britain (up in the north and down in the south) caused by post-glacial rebound. The Thames Barrier was constructed across the Thames at Woolwich in the 1970s to deal with this threat, but in early-2005 it was suggested that a ten-mile-long barrier further downstream might be required to deal with the flood risk in the future [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4162905.stm].
London has a temperate climate, with warm but seldom hot summers, cool but rarely severe winters, and regular but generally light precipitation throughout the year. Summer temperatures rarely rise much above 33°C (91°F), though higher temperatures have become more common recently. The highest temperature ever recorded in London was 38.1°C (100.6°F), measured at Kew Gardens during the European Heat Wave of 2003. Heavy snowfalls are almost unknown. In recent winters, snow has rarely settled to more than an inch (25 mm). London's average annual precipitation of less than 24 inches (600 mm) is lower than that of Rome or Sydney. London's large built-up area creates a microclimate, with heat stored by the city's buildings: sometimes temperatures are 5°C (9°F) warmer in the city than in the surrounding areas.
History
microclimate bombings of London]]
The name London is commonly thought to have come from the Latin name Londinium, as London was founded by the Romans during their reign over the land, around 43AD – although there is some slight evidence of pre-Roman settlement. The [http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/timelines/england/rom_roman_invasion.shtml BBC History website], however, claims that the name Londinium is actually "Celtic, not Latin, and may originally have referred to a previous farmstead on the site"; the root is 'Lond' meaning 'wild' (i.e. overgrown or forested) place. This fortified Roman settlement was the capital of the province of Britannia. According to findings displayed in London Museum, the initial language of London was Latin with much Greek spoken due to the presence of Greek speaking Roman soldiers and businessmen. Another suggestion for where the name of the city comes from could be that of the mythical leader, King Lud. It was said that Lud laid out the first set of roads in the city. His statue can be seen hidden at the church of St Dunstan's In The West, Fleet Street.
Around AD 61 the Iceni tribe of Celts lead by Queen Boudica stormed London and took the city from the Romans. The Celts burnt the relatively new Roman town to the ground, and archaeological digs have revealed a layer of red ash beneath the City of London, which is believed to be the burnt remains of the old Roman town.
After the fall of the Roman Empire, Londinium was abandoned and a Saxon town named Lundenwic was established approximately one mile to the west in what is now Aldwych, in the 7th century. The old Roman city was then reoccupied during the late-9th or early-10th century.
Westminster was once a distinct town, and has been the seat of the English royal court and government since the mediæval era. Eventually, Westminster and London grew together and formed the basis of London, becoming England's largest – though not capital – city (Winchester was the capital city of England until the 12th century).
London has grown steadily over centuries, surrounding and making suburbs of neighbouring villages and towns, farmland, countryside, meadows and woodlands, spreading in every direction. From the 16th to the early-20th century, London flourished as the capital of the British Empire.
In 1666, the Great Fire of London swept through and destroyed a large part of the City of London. Rebuilding took over 10 years, but London's growth accelerated in the 18th century, and, by the early-19th century, it was the largest city in the world.
London's local government system struggled to cope with this rapid growth, especially in providing the city with adequate infrastructure. In 1855 the Metropolitan Board of Works was created to provide London with infrastructure to cope with its growth. In 1889 the MBW was abolished, and the County of London was created which was administered by the London County Council, the first elected London-wide administrative body.
Probably the most significant changes to London in the last 100 years were as a result of the Blitz and other bombing by the German Luftwaffe that took place during World War II. The bombing killed over 30,000 Londoners and flattened large tracts of housing and other buildings across London. The rebuilding during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s was characterised by a wide range of architectural styles and has resulted in a lack of unity in architecture that has become part of London's character.
Until their 1997 ceasefire, London was regularly a target for IRA bombers seeking to pressurise the British government into negotiations with Sinn Féin on Northern Ireland.
On 7 July 2005, there was a series of coordinated bomb attacks by Islamic extremist suicide bombers on three underground stations and a bus. The explosions came less than 24 hours after London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympics and as the G-8 summit was underway in Gleneagles, Scotland. A series of explosions also took place on 21 July 2005; however, in the latter incident, there were no fatalities.
Modern London
2005
Today Greater London comprises the City of London and the 32 London boroughs (including the City of Westminster). 12 of these boroughs are defined as Inner London, the remaining 20 defined as Outer London. The dominant centre of activity in London is the City of Westminster (including the West End) which is the main cultural, entertainment and shopping district, the location of most of London's major corporate headquarters outside of the financial services sector, and the centre of the UK's national government. The City of London (also known as the "Square Mile") is at the centre of international finance, and is Europe’s main business centre. The headquarters of more than 100 of Europe’s 500 largest companies are all in London. The London foreign exchange market is the largest in the world, with an average daily turnover of $504 billion, more than the New York and Tokyo exchanges combined. While very busy during the working week, most parts of the City tend to be quiet at weekends, since it is primarily a non-residential area.
London is one of the most visited cities on earth. Tourist attractions are located mainly in Central London, comprising the historic City of London; the West End with its many cinemas, bars, clubs, theatres, shops and restaurants; the City of Westminster with Westminster Abbey, the Royal palaces of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House etc., the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea with its museums (the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, and Victoria and Albert Museum) and Hyde Park. Other important tourist attractions include St Paul's Cathedral, the National Gallery; the South Bank and Bankside areas of Southwark with the Globe Theatre and the Tate Modern; London Bridge, Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and the Tate Britain on the Embankment; and the British Museum in Bloomsbury. There are many other places of interest across the city.
Culture
:Main article: Culture of London.
London is an international centre of culture in all its forms - music, theatre, arts, museums, festivals and much more.
London Districts
See also: Inner London, Outer London.
Central London
City of London
Outer London]]
The City of London is the principal financial district of the United Kingdom, and is one of the most important in the world. It is governed by the Corporation of London, an ancient body headed by the Lord Mayor of London. The City also has its own police force, the City of London police. Once dominated by the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, it is now home to many skyscrapers, including Tower 42 (formerly, and popularly still, known as the NatWest Tower) and 30 St Mary Axe (popularly known as the "Gherkin", built in 2003).
The City has only a small (c. 7,000) resident population, but a daytime working population of more than 300,000. Its primacy as the chief financial district has been directly challenged in recent years by Canary Wharf in East London.
The West End
Canary Wharf.]]
The West End is the most popular shopping and entertainment district in London. Trafalgar Square is the most prominent landmark. Oxford Street is one of the best-known shopping streets in the world. Running from Charing Cross Road in the east to Marble Arch in the west, via Oxford Circus where it crosses Regent Street, it is home to many large department stores and shops (Selfridges, John Lewis, Marks and Spencer). Tottenham Court Road runs north from the eastern end of Oxford Street towards the north of the city centre, and is best known for its plethora of hi-fi, computer and electronics stores. West of the City, Covent Garden is home to the Avenue of Stars, London's version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame.
South of Oxford Street's eastern end is Soho, a network of small streets crowded with restaurants, pubs, clubs, smaller shops and boutiques, and theatres and cinemas, as well as media companies and film, advertising and post-production companies. Soho is also well known for its very lively club and bar scene, the notorious sex industry and as the major "gay quarter" of the city. Piccadilly is an elegant thoroughfare running from Piccadilly Circus in the east to Hyde Park Corner in the west. It is adjacent to Mayfair, and Green Park. Regent Street and Bond Street are important thoroughfares.
East London
East London saw much of London's early industrial development and much of it now is being extensively redeveloped as part of the Thames Gateway. It was also key to London's successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics, and is now scheduled to undergo extensive regeneration in the run-up to the games. This is the second time in modern history that East London has seen large-scale rebuilding: it took the full force of the Blitz in World War Two, with post-war reconstruction leaving a legacy of bleak housing estates and tower blocks in several areas.
The East End
tower block
The East End of London is closest to the original Port of London, and tended for that reason to be the area of the city where immigrants arriving into the port would settle first. Successive waves of immigrants include the French, the Huguenots, Belgians, Jews, Gujaratis, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and many other groups.
The East End extends from the eastern side of the City of London and includes areas such as Whitechapel, Mile End, Bethnal Green, Hackney, Bow, Millwall and Poplar. The area has many places of interest including many of London's markets, (for example Columbia Road Flower Market, Spitalfields Market, Brick Lane Market, Petticoat Lane Market), and several museums, including the Geffrye Museum and the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.
Docklands
Bethnal Green]]
The London Docklands, on the Isle of Dogs along the Thames in the East End, has developed enormously since the early-1980s. For a period in the early-1980s, many warehouse buildings in Wapping had been occupied and used as artists studios and low-cost loft living spaces. This inevitably drew the attention of property developers who gradually (and then not so gradually) moved in to take over. The London Docklands Development Corporation (LDDC) was set up in 1981 to accelerate the process, and the first phases of major development started to reshape the area, culminating in Canary Wharf, whose best-known feature is the 1 Canada Square office tower (which is often incorrectly called "Canary Wharf"), which has been the UK's tallest skyscraper since 1991.
A massive-scale development within the last three or four years has added a great many more skyscrapers, and many large businesses (investment banks, law firms, etc.) have moved in. A new headquarters for HSBC and Barclays as well as the European headquarters of Citigroup, have now been completed, and are in use.
Attracted by this growth, restaurants, bars and nightclubs have opened, there are three interconnected shopping malls beneath the Canary Wharf structure, and a cinema complex has opened in the area. The Docklands Light Railway (DLR) serves the area, connecting to the London Underground at Bank, Shadwell, Canning Town and Stratford stations.
There has also been a great deal of gentrification and residential development in the area: North of the Thames around Limehouse Basin and toward Wapping, as well as south of the Thames in Rotherhithe where former wharfs and the old docks have been converted into high-priced loft apartments for a community of bankers, software developers and others working in the financial service industries in and around Docklands.
Further east in the London Borough of Newham are London City Airport and the ExCeL Exhibition Centre.
West London
West London includes many of the traditionally fashionable and expensive residential areas such as Notting Hill, made better known in 1999 by a film of the same name starring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts. Within the district is the famous antique market at Portobello Road. Kensington and Chelsea are the most expensive places to live in the country. The area is also famous for the Kings Road, a distinguished and attractive shopping street and thoroughfare.
Further to the west, at White City, near Shepherd's Bush, is the principal operating centre for the BBC, while in the extreme west, in the London Borough of Hillingdon, lies Heathrow Airport.
Considered more south-west than West London on account of its being the only London borough to straddle the River Thames, Richmond upon Thames includes the attractive riverside districts of Richmond and Twickenham. This corner of London is home to Richmond Park, London's largest, and Twickenham, the home of English rugby union.
North London
North London includes suburbs such as Hampstead and Highgate, which retain a village atmosphere. North London is more hilly than the south, and many of the hills give excellent views across the city. Large parks include Hampstead Heath, which includes Parliament Hill, noted for its fine views over the city, and the Hampstead bathing ponds; and Alexandra Park, site of Alexandra Palace. Many areas have significant minority populations including Stamford Hill, home to a significant community of Orthodox Jews, the Green Lanes area of Harringay and the Finsbury Park area have large Turkish and Greek communities. Islington is considered one of the more affluent areas in London, due to large scale gentrification, although it is in fact one of the most deprived boroughs in the country; it is also home to Arsenal football club. North London's other world-famous football team, Tottenham Hotspur, play in nearby Tottenham.
South London
South London contains such diverse districts as Wimbledon (famous as the home of the major tennis Wimbledon Championships), Bermondsey, and Dulwich. Redevelopment of the Elephant and Castle, a road intersection and district close to the centre, is due to start in 2006.
Greenwich is on the banks of the Thames where the river broadens into a wide meandering reach of muddy water. It is an historic neighbourhood and boasts a fine park and the Royal Greenwich Observatory. It is also has a popular market.
Brixton, Camberwell and Peckham are home to many families (and their descendants) who immigrated to London from the West Indies during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, sometimes known as Afro-Caribbeans.
Demographics
Afro-Caribbeans
London had about 860,000 people in 1801 (in comparison, Paris had about 670,000 in 1802), and the population of Edo (modern-day Tokyo, Japan), at the time the largest city in the world, has been estimated at 1 million to 1.25 million people. London was the most populous city in the world from 1825 until 1925, when it was overtaken by New York.
Residents of London are known as Londoners. The city and the 32 boroughs (some 1,579 km² or 610 square miles) had an estimated 7,421,228 inhabitants in 2004, making London the most populous city in Europe alongside Moscow. Subsequent reviews suggested that the returns were understated, and that the population on Census Day was closer to 7.29 million. The official estimate of London's population in mid-2003 is 7,387,900 [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Expodata/Spreadsheets/D8561.xls]
In the 2001 census, 76% of these seven million people classed their ethnic group as white (classified as British White, Irish White or "Other White" in the 2001 census), 10% as Indian, Bangladeshi or Pakistani, 5% as black African, 5% as black Caribbean, 3% as mixed race and 1% as Chinese. The largest religious groupings are Christian (58.2%) and No Religion (15.8%). 21.8% of inhabitants were born outside the European Union. The Irish are the largest foreign-born group in London (numbering approximately 200,000).
European Union]
Unlike many other countries, the UK does not provide national metropolitan area population figures based on commuter percentages and economic influence. This is left up to each individual city to define. This has created much confusion when comparing London's true metropolitan area region with others around the world. It is helped even less by confusion of the term "Greater London" with the political entity of the City of London, which is often confused with the metropolitan area.
Without a specific national reference to London's metropolitan area, many different sources provide alternate definitions. One widely regarded definition describes the London metropolitan area (6,267 square miles, 16,043 km²) with a population of 13,945,000 — larger than the combined populations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. (External references: [http://www.demographia.com/dm-lonarea.htm], [http://www.lbwf.gov.uk/demography/census/london/london_boroughs_census2001.pdf]) If this definition is followed, then London is the largest metropolitan area of Europe, along with Moscow (whose metropolitan area has somewhere around 14 million people), and above Paris (11.5 million people in the metropolitan area in 2004).
In 2004, the Greater London Authority defined a metropolitan region centred on London with a population of 18 million. This region extends to cover the commuter belt, and much of South East England and East of England, for example including the cities of Brighton and Oxford. (External references:[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/london_plan/lon_plan_all.pdf],[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/london_plan/lon_plan_1.pdf],[http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/strategies/sds/draft_london_plan/dlp_ch1.pdf])
Government
Greater London Authority meets here]]
Greater London is divided into the 32 London boroughs and the City of London. The boroughs are the most important unit of local government in London, and are responsible for running most local services in their respective areas. The City of London is run not by a conventional local authority, but by the historical Corporation of London.
The Greater London Authority (GLA) is the London-wide body responsible for co-ordinating the boroughs, strategic planning, and running some London-wide services such as policing, the fire service and transport. The GLA consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The mayor is elected by the Supplementary Vote system while the assembly is elected by the Additional Member System.
The incumbent Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, was elected as an independent candidate in the 2000 election. Despite opposition from all the main political parties and the press, his popularity with Londoners has remained high. Livingstone was expelled from the Labour Party when he opposed the official Labour candidate Frank Dobson in the 2000 Mayoral election. Readmitted by that party in 2004, he was re-elected as Mayor as an official Labour candidate in the election later that year.
The GLA was created in 2000 as a replacement body for the former Greater London Council (GLC) which was created in 1965 and abolished in 1986 after political disputes between the GLC (then led by Ken Livingstone) and the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher.
Previous London wide administrative bodies were the Metropolitan Board of Works (MBW) from 1855 to 1889; the London County Council (LCC) from 1889 to 1965; and the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1965 to 1986. When the GLC was abolished, most of its functions were devolved to the London boroughs, while others were taken over by joint-boards or other unelected bodies. The boroughs thus enjoyed "unitary status" and a degree of autonomy when the GLC was abolished, and although losing some powers which have been repatriated to the GLA they still retain many areas they did not control under the GLC.
London is represented in Parliament by 74 MPs. For a list of London constituencies see List of Parliamentary constituencies in Greater London.
The territorial police force for the 32 London boroughs is the Metropolitan Police Service, more commonly referred to as the Metropolitan Police, or simply "the Met". The City of London has its own police force, the City of London Police.
Health services in London are managed by the national government via the National Health Service (NHS). Greater London is divided into five Strategic Health Authorities [http://www.nhs.uk/england/authoritiestrusts/sha/MapSearch.aspx?rg=Y21].
Transport and infrastructure
For main article see Transport and infrastructure in London
Transport and infrastructure in London
Transport is one of the four areas of policy administered by the Mayor of London, but the mayor's financial control is limited. The executive agency which runs London's transport system is Transport for London (TfL). The public transport network is one of the most extensive in the world, but faces congestion and reliability issues. The network is one of the most complex transit systems in the world with just over 1 billion journeys used every year on the underground alone. London is most famous for its AEC Routemaster buses which have been in service in the capital since 1956. Routemasters will be phased out of service from TfL's main bus routes, with the last routemaster service being operated on the 9 December 2005 on Route 159. Two 'heritage' routes are planned for service to maintain Routemasters on London's streets.
2005]]
The networks for transport in London include:
Underground (commonly known as the tube);
Bus;
River Services;
Docklands Light Railway (DLR);
Croydon Tramlink;
National Rail;
Thameslink.
As of mid-2005, in preparation for the 2012 London Olympic Games a total of £7 billion ($12 billion) will be spent on refurbishment and expansion of city links, mainly on the London Underground. Although the main reason for this is because of the increased traffic flow that will be caused by the 2012 Olympics, the work would still be completed if London had not won the games. By 2013 a new service called Crossrail is due to be opened. Also in planning is the Cross River Tram (CRT). It will depart in the south suburbs, cross the River Thames, through to the City of London (the financial district), and continue its journey to the northern suburbs. It is speculated that it will be the world's longest tram.
The main Olympic arenas will be sited close to Stratford International station, which is currently being constructed as part of the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. The new high-speed line, due to open in 2007, will be used by the regular 'Olympic Javelin' service with a journey time of 7 minutes between Stratford and St Pancras. This service was a key part of the Olympic bid and will provide access from northern areas of the UK via King's Cross and Euston.
Education
Main Article: Education in London
London is home to a diverse number of universities, colleges and schools, and is a leading centre of research and development.
This includes prominemnt universities such as Imperial College, London and the London School of Economics
Media
The British media is concentrated in London and is sometimes accused of having a "London bias". All the major television networks are headquartered in London including the BBC, which remains one of the world's most influential media organisations. Partly to counter complaints about London bias, the BBC announced in June 2004 that some departments (BBC Sport, CBBC, Cbeebies, BBC Three and BBC Radio Five Live) are to be relocated to Manchester. Other major networks include ITV, Channel 4, Five and BSkyB - all based in London. Like the BBC, these produce some programmes elsewhere in the UK, but London is their main production centre.
There is a huge choice of radio stations available in London. Local city-wide stations include music-based stations such as Capital FM, Heart 106.2 and Kiss 100 and popular news/talk stations include BBC London, LBC 97.3 and LBC News 1152.
The London newspaper market is dominated by national newspapers, all of which are edited in London. Until the 1970s, most of the national newspapers were concentrated in Fleet Street, but in the 1980s they relocated to new premises with automated printing works. Most of these are in East London, most famously the News International plant at Wapping. The move was resisted strongly by the printing trade union SOGAT 82, and strike action at Wapping in 1986 led to violent skirmishes. The last major news agency in Fleet Street, Reuters, moved to Canary Wharf in 2005, but Fleet Street is still commonly used as a collective term for the national press. Regional Editions of most national newspapers are available, including editions for northern England, Scotland and Wales.
London has three daily newspaper titles - the popular Evening Standard, plus two free titles, Metro and Standard Lite (published by the Evening Standard) which are distributed every morning at London tube and railway stations. The independent weekly listings guide Time Out Magazine has been providing concert, film, theatre and arts information since 1968.
London is at the centre of British film and television production industries, with major studio facilities on the western fringes of the conurbation and a large post-production industry centred in Soho. London is one of the two leading centres of English-language publishing alongside New York. Globally important media companies based in London range from publishing group Pearson, to the information agency Reuters, to the world's number two advertising business WPP Group.
There are a vast number of local newspapers in the London area, often covering a small section of the vast city.
Religion
local newspapers
When Pope Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine to bring England into the Catholic fold in 597, it was intended that the envoy should become "Archbishop of London", as the city was remembered as the capital of Roman Britain. In the event, the saint received his most hospitable reception in the Kingdom of Kent, and the archiepiscopal see was founded at Canterbury. Nonetheless London has been at the centre of England's religious life for much of its history, and each Archbishop of Canterbury has traditionally spent much of his time in London, where he has an official residence at Lambeth Palace. London's two Anglican bishops are the Bishop of London, whose see is London north of the Thames, and whose throne is in London's grandest church, the baroque St Paul's Cathedral (designed by Sir Christopher Wren), and the Bishop of Southwark, who tends to Anglicans south of the river. Important national and royal ceremonies are divided between St Paul's and Westminster Abbey, a gothic church on the scale of a cathedral. As in the rest of the UK, religious attendance in London is low, and the Church of England has borne the brunt of this decline.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster is generally regarded as the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Other traditional Protestant denominations whose headquarters are in London include the United Reformed Church and the Quakers. Many of London's immigrant groups have established denominations in the city, for example Greek Orthodoxy. In addition various evangelical churches exist.
London is the most important centre of Islam in the United Kingdom. Two London boroughs contain the highest proportion of Muslims in the UK: Tower Hamlets and Newham. The London Central Mosque is a well-known landmark on the edge of Regent's Park, and there are many other mosques in the city. London also has the largest Hindu population outside of India. Southall, in West London is home to many Hindus. The Hindu temple at Neasden, Neasden Temple is the largest Hindu temple outside of India and a remarkable example of a modern building in a traditional style. Much of the enormously elaborate and intricate marble sculpture used in the building was carved in India. Over two-thirds of British Jews live in London, which ranks thirteenth in the world as a Jewish population centre [http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/demtables.html#10].
Sport
British Jews
London hosts one of the world's largest mass-participation marathons, the London Marathon, and has hosted the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1948. In July 2005 London was chosen to host the Games in 2012. London will be the first city in the world to host the Summer Olympics three times.
The most popular spectator sport in London is football, and London has several of England's leading football clubs. Historically the London clubs have not accumulated as many trophies as those from the North West of England, such as Liverpool and Manchester United, but at present Arsenal (founded at Woolwich Arsenal but moved to Highbury in 1913), and Chelsea (who play in Fulham) are regarded as two of the Premier League's "Big three" alongside Manchester United. In 2003-04 they became the first pair of London clubs to finish first and second in the top flight, with Arsenal winning. In 2004-05 they did so again, this time with Chelsea winning.
London clubs are able to charge higher ticket prices than clubs in other parts of the country (particularly for corporate facilities), and this has swung English football's balance of power towards London. Before Chelsea's recent rise in fortunes the two highest profile London clubs were Arsenal and their long-standing North London rivals Tottenham Hotspur, both of whom were considered to be members of English football's "Big five" for most of the post-war period. In 2005-06 there are six London clubs in the Premier League: Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea, plus Charlton Athletic, Fulham and West Ham United.
There are also five London clubs in the fully professional Football League (the level below the Premiership), namely Brentford, Crystal Palace (who play in South Norwood), Leyton Orient, Millwall and Queens Park Rangers (QPR)—all of whom have previously played in the top division. In a controversial move, Wimbledon left London in 2003 to play in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, changing their name to Milton Keynes Dons; the newly formed AFC Wimbledon inherited most of their support, despite playing at a much lower level in the football pyramid. There are also numerous London clubs playing outside the top four divisions of English football, one or two of which are fully professional and many of which are part-time professional.
Wembley Stadium in north-west London is the national football stadium, traditionally the home of the FA Cup Final as well as England national side's home matches. Currently, Wembley is being completely rebuilt, so Cardiff's Millennium Stadium has been the venue for recent FA Cup finals, while England play at various venues around the country. Wembley was one of the venues for the , and the 1996 European Championship, and hosted the final of both tournaments. It also was the venue for the European Cup final in 1968, 1978 and 1992. As well as football matches, Wembley has hosted many other sporting events, including the Rugby League Challenge Cup final.
Rugby Union is also well established in London, especially in the middle-class suburbs to the north and west of the city. The common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar).
Events
- January 23 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
- March 1 - Victor Hugo gives speech at the French national assembly and uses the phrase United States of Europe several times
- March 27 - First reported case of white men seeing Yosemite Valley.
- March 30 - A population census was taken of all people living in the United Kingdom.
- May 1 - The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in the Crystal Palace, Hyde Park, London is opened by Queen Victoria. It runs until October 18.
- May 15 - Rama IV is crowed King of Thailand.
- July - The immortal game, a famous chess game, is played.
- July 1 - Colony of Victoria separates from New South Wales.
- July 1 - Serial poisoner Helene Jegado is arrested in Rennes, France
- July 29 - Annibale de Gasparis, in Naples, Italy discovers asteroid 15 Eunomia.
- August 5 - Mount Pelee erupts and kills 30 people.
- August 22 - The yacht America wins the first America's Cup race.
- September 15 - Saint Joseph's University is founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
- September 18 - The New York Times is founded.
- October - Reuters news service founded.
- October 18 - The Great Exhibition in London is closed.
- October 24 - Ariel and Umbriel, moons of Uranus, discovered by William Lassell.
- November 13 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington.
- November 14 - Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick is published in the U.S. by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published on October 18, by Richard Bentley, London.
- December 2 - Louis Napoleon, president of France, dissolves French National Assembly and declares a new constitution to extend his term. Later he declares himself as an emperor Napoleon III. End of the Second Republic.
- December 6 - Trial of Helene Jegado begins; she is eventually sentenced to death and executed in a guillotine.
- December 9 - The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal, Quebec.
- December 24 - The Library of Congress burns.
- December 26-27 - Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos island; Oba Kosoko is wounded and flees to Epe.
- December 29 - The first YMCA opens, in Boston, Massachusetts.
Undated
- Dictator Rosas overthrown in Brazil. New government recognizes independent Paraguay. New Blanco government in Uruguay
- Florida State University is founded.
- Gold discovered in Australia.
- St. Paul's College, Hong Kong is founded.
Births
- January 17 - A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
- January 19 - Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
- February 8 - Kate Chopin, American writer (d. 1904)
- March 19 - William Henry Stark, Business Leader (d. 1936)
- March 27 - Vincent d'Indy, French composer and teacher (d. 1931)
- March 28 - Bernardino Machado, Portuguese President (d. 1944)
- April 21 - Charles Barrois, French geologist (d. 1939)
- May 6 - Aristide Bruant, French cabaret singer and comedian (d. 1925)
- May 20 - Emil Berliner, telephone and recording pioneer (d. 1929)
- May 21 - Léon Bourgeois, French statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1925)
- August 14 - Doc Holliday, American gambler and gunfighter (d. 1887)
- September 7 - David King Udall, American politician (d. 1938)
- October 2 - Ferdinand Foch, French commander of allied forces in World War I (d. 1929)
- Robert Abbe, American surgeon (d. 1928)
- Tom Morris, Jr., Scottish golfer (d. 1875)
Deaths
- January 10 - Karl Freiherr von Müffling, Prussian field marshal (b. 1775)
- January 27 - John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (b. 1785)
- January 31 - David Spangler Kaufman, Congressman from Texas (b. 1813)
- February 1 - Mary Shelley, English author (b. 1797)
- February 18 - Carl Gustav Jakob Jacobi, German mathematician (b. 1804)
- March 9 - Hans Christian Ørsted, Danish scientist (b. 1777)
- September 10 - Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, American educator (b. 1787)
- September 11 - Sylvester Graham, American nutritionist and inventor (b. 1794)
- September 14 - James Fenimore Cooper, American writer (b. 1789)
- October 4 - Manuel de Godoy, Spanish statesman (b. 1767)
- November 26 - | | |
