At Day's Close: A History of Nighttime

· Weidenfeld & Nicolson · Narrated by Roger Davis
2.0
1 review
Audiobook
14 hr 43 min
Unabridged
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About this audiobook

A fascinating and colourful social history of the nighttime.

'A wonderful revelation of a vanished age of darkness' SPECTATOR

'Fascinating' SUNDAY TIMES

'A splendid book ... great entertainment' Sir Patrick Moore

'A triumph of social history. Almost every page contains something to surprise the reader ... one of the most enjoyable literary experiences of the year' MAIL ON SUNDAY

From blanket fairs to night kings, curfews to crime, At Day's Close is an intriguing and captivating investigation into the night. Until now, this rich and complex universe in which we spend nearly half of our lives was a world long-lost to historians.

Here, Ekirch explores how the night was lived in the past, through travel accounts, memoirs, letters, folklore, poems, court records and coroner's reports. More than this, it is a passionate argument in the case for less artificial light in an increasingly bright world.

Ratings and reviews

2.0
1 review
Frances Sharkey
June 24, 2022
I'll be honest, I didn't even manage to finish the preview. The amount of quotes which requires the narrator to change his voice to allow for the listener to know it's a quote means that it can be a discombobulating affair trying to keep up. I couldn't understand what point was being made in all of the myriad quotes and if I did get a glimmer it disappeared just as quickly under a deluge of more quotes.
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About the author

Professor A. Roger Ekirch was born in 1950 in America. He teaches at Virginia Tech. On the basis of his research into the nighttime, Ekirch was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

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