London is one of three novels set in relatively close to each other in the south of England. It's obvious a selection had to be made and Rutherfurd has chosen to stay very close to developments in the city, not letting himself get distracted by events in the rest of the world. Given the enormous amount of historical material available on this topic Rutherfurd could probably have written another book as big as this one. The emphasis of the novel is on medieval and early modern history of the city.
I suspect it would be interesting to visit the Museum of London with these sections as a guide. The period up to the Norman invasion in 1066 takes up less than 200 pages, a lot of which seems to be tied to archaeological finds in the region. After a brief section detailing the geological history of the region, the story kicks off in 54 BC with Ceasar's invasion of Britain. Where Rutherfurd covered ten-thousand years of history in his first novel, he takes a slightly less ambitions approach this time. Like all Rutherfurd's novels, London takes the Mitchener approach to historical fiction, in this case covering twenty-one centuries following the lives of a number of fictional families. Given the size of these novels, London weighs in at over 1300 pages in mass market paperback and that is a few pages less than Sarum, I decided to read London first. I've read it a number of years ago and I may reread it at some point in the future. Ruska (1991) is the odd one out in his bibliography so far, it's the only one that is not set in an English speaking part of the world. I'm skipping his second novel for the moment. I reviewed his début Sarum (1987) last year and concluded that he has gone on to write better books. Retrieved 20 February 2008.London (1997) is Edward Rutherfurd's third novel. 2007, USA, Ballantine Books ( ISBN 978-0345472366), pub date 27 February 2007, paperback (as The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga).2006, Canada, Doubleday Canada ( ISBN 978-0385659062), pub date 2 March 2006, hardback (as The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga).In addition to the previous novel other families appear on the scene and together they live through the Cromwellian period, the Protestant Ascendancy and the Famine. This sequel to Dublin: Foundation also set in Ireland follows the clans or families of the O'Byrnes, Walshes, MacGowans etc. It concludes the two-part series known as The Dublin Saga. Ireland: Awakening (2006) (also known in North America as The Rebels of Ireland: The Dublin Saga) is a novel by Edward Rutherfurd first published in 2006 by Century Hutchinson.
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