From Publishers Weekly
With this inventive, larky novel, British author Ackroyd's (Hawksmoor) reputation here should be enhanced. Though the characters at first seem to be excessively eccentric, Dickensian to a fault, eventually they become credible as an ingenious plot fuses their lives. Revolving around the eponymous English poet who committed suicide in 1770 when he was 18, the story begins in modern-day London where another impoverished poet, Charles Wynchwood, discovers a painting that appears to depict Chatterton at an age older than he was when he died. Intrigued, Charles travels to Bristol, Chatterton's birthplace, where he acquires a manuscript that suggests that Chatterton faked his own death and continued to write poetry that was attributed to Cowper, Grey and Blake, among others. Meanwhile, elderly novelist Harriet Scrope employs Charles to help her write her memoirs, which she hopes will not reveal the fact that her novels have all been plagiarized from obscure authors. Simultaneously, the owners of an art gallery where Charles's wife Vivien works are made aware that paintings they have sold are actually fakes. As Charles's life begins more and more to resemble Chatterton's, whom we meet in flashback, Ackroyd unrolls further surprises, capturing the reader in a spiraling series of events, all of which relate to the nature of truth and reality, and the role of art in assuring immortality. Manifestly clever, darkly humorous (although sometimes overdone: the poet Charles eats the pages of books), increasingly suspenseful, sometimes lyrical (as befits its subject), cunningly complex, this eminently satisfying tale has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
A bestseller in Britain, Chatterton is the latest of Ackroyd's fictional games with figures from Britain's literary past. The plot centers around the discovery by Charles Wychwood, an aspiring poet, of an old manuscript that he believes to have been written by Thomas Chatterton, the 18th-century English poet who committed suicide at 18. Or did he? Ackroyd tantalizingly explores the themes of reality and illusion, truth and falsity, mortality and immortality, and the curious and inexplicable ways in which past, present, and future are entwined. An intriguing plot, laced with mystery and a hint of possession (a favorite subject of Ackroyd's), combines with a gallery of eccentric characters and some witty dialogue to produce this skillful, engaging, thought-provoking novel.Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, IowaCopyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In this remarkable detective novel Peter Ackroyd investigates the death of Thomas Chatterton, the eighteenth-century poet-forger and genius, who died at the tender age of eighteen under extremely strange circumstances. Fusing themes of illusion and imagination, delusion and dreams, the author weaves strands from three centuries. The cast is a motley crew of Dickensian eccentrics and rogues, from the outrageous, gin-sipping Harriet Scrope to the tragic Charles Wychwood, on a personal quest for Chatterton's deepest secrets. With his customary wit and attention to historical detail, Peter Ackroyd blends truth and fiction into a tantalizingly clever whodunit, an ingenious twist on the tale of English literature's greatest prodigy and most notorious "suicide."

"CHATTERTON . . . satisfies both the imagination and the intellect; every chapter delights, surprises and informs." (Sunday Times of London)

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

With this inventive, larky novel, British author Ackroyd's (Hawksmoor) reputation here should be enhanced. Though the characters at first seem to be excessively eccentric, Dickensian to a fault, eventually they become credible as an ingenious plot fuses their lives. Revolving around the eponymous English poet who committed suicide in 1770 when he was 18, the story begins in modern-day London where another impoverished poet, Charles Wynchwood, discovers a painting that appears to depict Chatterton at an age older than he was when he died.

Intrigued, Charles travels to Bristol, Chatterton's birthplace, where he acquires a manuscript that suggests that Chatterton faked his own death and continued to write poetry that was attributed to Cowper, Grey and Blake, among others. Meanwhile, elderly novelist Harriet Scrope employs Charles to help her write her memoirs, which she hopes will not reveal the fact that her novels have all been plagiarized from obscure authors. Simultaneously, the owners of an art gallery where Charles's wife Vivien works are made aware that paintings they have sold are actually fakes. As Charles's life begins more and more to resemble Chatterton's, whom we meet in flashback, Ackroyd unrolls further surprises, capturing the reader in a spiraling series of events, all of which relate to the nature of truth and reality, and the role of art in assuring immortality.

Manifestly clever, darkly humorous (although sometimes overdone: the poet Charles eats the pages of books), increasingly suspenseful, sometimes lyrical (as befits its subject), cunningly complex.

Library Journal

A bestseller in Britain, Chatterton is the latest of Ackroyd's fictional games with figures from Britain's literary past. The plot centers around the discovery by Charles Wychwood, an aspiring poet, of an old manuscript that he believes to have been written by Thomas Chatterton, the 18th-century English poet who committed suicide at 18. Or did he? Ackroyd tantalizingly explores the themes of reality and illusion, truth and falsity, mortality and immortality, and the curious and inexplicable ways in which past, present, and future are entwined. An intriguing plot, laced with mystery and a hint of possession (a favorite subject of Ackroyd's), combines with a gallery of eccentric characters and some witty dialogue to produce this skillful, engaging, thought-provoking novel. -- Bryan Aubrey, Fairfield, Iowa

Library Journal