The Postmodern Kaleidoscope of London Below in Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere

Chris Yokel

In Neil Gaiman’s first novel Neverwhere, an ordinary Londoner named Richard Mayhew is ushered into the fantastical underworld of London Below when he helps the mysterious injured vagrant girl, Door. After crossing paths with her and getting caught up in her story, Richard must traverse the shadowy and dangerous realms of the London underworld. In London Below, Neil Gaiman has crafted a postmodern kaleidoscope of a world that melds literary elements such as Greek mythology, Atlantis, Dante’s Inferno, Paradise Lost, Alice in Wonderland, Puss in Boots, and other stories through which Richard must travel as he undergoes his heroic journey. Gaiman crosses borders between these genres and stories as he relates Richard’s own border crossing from London Above to London Below.