Introduction:

imagining London or,

Rainbird was sure of it

Now let me ca U back those who introduced me to the city.

Walter Be njamin

London must eve r have a great illu stra tive and s u gges tive
value ... it is the single p al ce in which m os t read ers, most
possible ol vers, are gathered together.
Henry James

I saw and felt London a t las t.

Charlo tte Bronte

In 1862, at a point shortly after which this book concludes, C harles

Baud elaire asks a rhetorical question in the dedication to Arsene
Hou ssaye which prefaces Le spleen de Paris:

Quel est celui de oaus qui n 'a pas, d a ns ses jaurs d 'ambition,
reve Ie miracle d'une prose poetique, musicale sans ry thme e l
sans rime, assez souple et assez heurtee pour s'ad a pter aux
mouvements y l riques de l'ame, a ux ondulations de 1a reverie,
aux soubresauts d e la conscien ce?

Which of us has never imagined, in his more ambitious moments,

the miracle of a poetic prose, musical though rhythmless and
rhyme less, flexible yet strong enou gh to identify with the lyri-
ca l impulses of the so ul, tile ebbs a"d flows of revery, the pangs
of conscience?

He then responds immediately to this q uestion in the following

manner;