The Plato Papers - Hardcover

"Richly revealing. . . . Unlike anything else Peter Ackroyd has written. . . . A jeu d'esprit." "--The New York Times Book Review" "A lively tale and an invigorating meditation on the changelessness, after no matter how many eons, of human nature." "--Time" "A serious divertissement, a brilliant fabulation that is the product of a playful, engaged, and well-stocked mind." "--The Boston Globe" "A little book that raises some big questions. . . . You can finish it in a couple of hours. But if you read it carefully, you'll be thinking about it for days." "--Philadelphia Inquirer" "Peter Ackroyd is a visionary, as The Plato Papers makes clear. This is one of the oddest but most important and original novels to appear in many years. This masterpiece of contemporary writing will thrill and entertain readers for years to come, but it will do more than that: it will enlarge their vision, stimulating organs long forgotten and never known." --Jay Parini, author of The Last Station and Robert Frost: A Life "What makes The Plato Papers notable is not its fantastic invention but its intelligence...Excellently written...with a truly Socratic curiosity, making The Plato Papers a philosophical good read." --Malcolm Bradbury, "Financial Times" "An invigorating mixture of satire, history, philosophy, morality, and linguistic investigation...it's like T.S. Eliot on speed meets Martian poetry but with better jokes." --Michele Robert, "The Times" "Articulate, comic, wise, delicate, melancholy, exquisite. It simultaneously deconstructs the story of the past and builds its own myth. In short, this is a carefully pulsed breath of a book, with an impact that sneaks into one's dreams." --John Clute, "The Independent" "A fantastic invention--excellently written."--Malcolm Bradbury " " Richly revealing. . . . Unlike anything else Peter Ackroyd has written. . . . A jeu d'esprit." "--The New York Times Book Review" " A lively tale and an invigorating meditation on the changelessness, after no matter how many eons, of human nature." "--Time" " A serious divertissement, a brilliant fabulation that is the product of a playful, engaged, and well-stocked mind." "--The Boston Globe" " A little book that raises some big questions. . . . You can finish it in a couple of hours. But if you read it carefully, you'll be thinking about it for days." "--Philadelphia Inquirer" " Peter Ackroyd is a visionary, as The Plato Papers makes clear. This is one of the oddest but most important and original novels to appear in many years. This masterpiece of contemporary writing will thrill and entertain readers for years to come, but it will do more than that: it will enlarge their vision, stimulating organs long forgotten and never known." --Jay Parini, author of The Last Station and Robert Frost: A Life " What makes The Plato Papers notable is not its fantastic invention but its intelligence...Excellently written...with a truly Socratic curiosity, making The Plato Papers a philosophical good read." --Malcolm Bradbury, "Financial Times" " An invigorating mixture of satire, history, philosophy, morality, and linguistic investigation...it's like T.S. Eliot on speed meets Martian poetry but with better jokes." --Michele Robert, "The Times" " Articulate, comic, wise, delicate, melancholy, exquisite. It simultaneously deconstructs the story of the past and builds its own myth. Inshort, this is a carefully pulsed breath of a book, with an impact that sneaks into one's dreams." --John Clute, "The Independent" " A fantastic invention--excellently written." --Malcolm Bradbury -->

Plato, the orator, summons the citizens of London on ritual occasions to impart the ancient history of their city. He dwells particulary on the unhappy era of Mouldwarp (AD 1500-2300), which existed before the dimming of the stars and the burning of the machines. But then he is put on trial.