This course at the City LIt in London looked very interesting: a means of exploring three cities and their depiction in three novels. The focus was not so much on viewing the city through a tourist’s lens as on looking at how spaces in the city interacted with the experiences of the authors or, rather, the narrators in their stories. The spaces and infrastructure considered were not only external, as in streets and landmarks, but internal too.

I thought this sounded very different from the usual kind of literary criticism I indulge in, and I was not disappointed.

The course was enriched by film and TV recommendations, and by the tutor’s (David Anderson) mini-lectures at the start of each session. Also, David made ample use of the breakout rooms, and the discussions in those, along with the whole-group ones, very much added to my knowledge in these hitherto unconsidered domains.

I very much enjoyed the course. I discovered books and films I hadn’t encountered before, and the intellectual stimulation was very welcome. I think it a great pity it was not longer: it was only 6 sessions long, in which we looked three cities: Paris, Berlin and Madrid. I should have liked to have explored other world cities in a similar way.

If the course is offered again, do it!

Reviews of novels looked at in the course: