This book is a tale of three cities: the fictional London that lives in the pages of writers from Shakespeare to P. D. James and Martin Amis; the historical metropolis where so many immortal authors have made their homes; and the vibrant capital that today welcomes visitors from all over the world. Anna Quindlen evokes all three as she travels from Sherlock Holmes's digs at 221b Baker Street (as real an imaginary address as there ever was), to Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey, a memorial to the greatest writers of our language, to Hyde Park Gate, the genteel neighborhood from which Galsworthy's Forsyte Saga unfolds. We stroll through elegant squares that summon the ghosts of characters from Thackeray and Trollope, and pause at a pub whose ornate sign would be familiar to anyone - real or fictional - from Shakespeare's era to today.