Derby Day

Rather a tedious book. Clearly meticulously researched, but very laboured and desperately heavy going.
Reading this book was a little like watching grass grow in real time, but maybe not quite as exciting. ( )

4 stars for the pacy narrative and period detail. Mr Taylor paints a compelling picture of the niceties of off course betting in Victorian England, the roaring trade in buying and selling notes ("bills") of credit, and the general crushing boredom of lower and upper middle class life. His characters are well drawn and broadly sympathetic and the plot around the ownership, running and potential success (or not) of the horse Tiberius is engrossing. Mr Taylor is also able to keep the Victorian tone of the narrative fairly steady, with only the occasional slip

So far so good. But it falls down in a couple of ways. Firstly, the female characters are a lot less believable than the male. Mrs Happerton is a central character in the plot - and yet her motives remain obscure. All the male characters find her sly and enigmatic - and its seems the author is unable to pin her down either. Which is fine in a way - but it does leave some important plot threads loose, at least for me. Similarly the governess Miss Ellington is dispatched to the depths of Lincolnshire with much fanfare and dread - and then left to her own devices, as though the author also can't work out what a young woman would do to amuse herself in these circumstances,

So overall an enjoyable book, perfect for the beach pool or plane, but light ( )

Are you, perhaps, a fan of the Victorian novel who finds yourself coming sadly to the realization that this will not be the summer you manage to re-read Bleak House after all? If so, you should find this clever and highly entertaining tale of the intrigues and subterfuges practiced by "sporting gentlemen" intent on making their fortunes upon the hallowed turf of Epsom Down an eminently satisfying substitution. Period detail abounds, the characters are worthy of Dickens and Thackeray, and all the niceties of the genre (including chapter titles such as "Captain McTurk Takes Charge" and "The Triumph of a Modern Man") are observed. Captain McTurk also figures in a previous novel by D.J. Taylor (Kept: A Victorian Mystery), but lack of familiarity with the first book will in no way impede a reader's enjoyment of this one. ( )

This subtitled Victorian mystery is centered around George Happerton, a man of uncertain means, questionable morals and high ambitions, who seeks to make a fortune by obtaining a race horse and entering him in the biggest horse race of the year. To accomplish this, he connivingly marries the daughter of a well-to-do lawyer in London, and the two manage to wheedle the funds he needs to purchase the animal. Happerton engages several shady characters to obtain additional capital, which he uses to bet in the race.

This was a well written mystery novel, which held my interest for the first 2/3 of the book. However, the last 1/3, which corresponded to the day of the race, was a long slow drag, which seemed like a 45 rpm record suddenly being played at 33 rpm. Overall this was an enjoyable novel, in keeping with this year's "Booker Lite" theme, but it will leave no strong impression with me, and did not deserve to make this year's longlist. ( )

Like his book Kept (which I read some time ago and really enjoyed), Derby Day is subtitled "A Victorian Mystery," and there is enough intrigue and foul play scattered throughout the novel's 400+ pages to keep a mystery reader happy. At the same time, it's a novel that brings together several characters from different walks of life in Victorian England, many of whose fortunes hang in the balance based on the performance of a race horse named Tiberius. Derby Day does indeed offer its readers a "break" in their "overworked lives": although his Victorian narrative style may not be everyone's cup of tea, the story is a great deal of fun. And I would have bought this book even if it had not appeared on this year's Booker Prize longlist, because of my previous enjoyment of Taylor's Kept. It may not be great literature, it has a great entertainment quotient.

In Lincolnshire, Samuel Davenant is the owner of a horse named Tiberius, who had

"won the Epsom's Two Year's Old Plate, altogether ran away with the Trial Stakes at Abingdon and absolutely tied with the Duke of Grafton's Creditor for the Middle Park Plate."

Although the horse has great potential in the upcoming Derby, Davenant is deeply in debt, scarcely able to feed it. After the disappointing purchase of two other horses on the back of Tiberius' reputation ("thinking that where one animal had gone others might follow"), and an unsuccessful lawsuit against a neighbor, Davenant has mounting bills that he cannot pay. He's a quiet man, preferring the solitude of his home, Scroop Hall, where he lives with his daughter Evie. At the same time, in London, Mr. Happerton is a rakish young man who is fascinated with Tiberius, noting that "There are men who would pay five thousand to have him running under their name." Happerton knows Davenant's financial situation and has been quietly buying up his debts, secretly planning to take Tiberius when the bills come due and Davenant is forcibly pushed into bankruptcy. The problem is that his scheme requires an outlay of capital which Happerton doesn't have. To remedy that situation, Happerton marries Rebecca Gresham, daughter of a well-to-do lawyer. But while his father-in-law's money isn't enough to fully finance his plans, Happerton's not too worried: he is a man ready with a few more tricks up his sleeve.

The action is not as cut and dried as one would think and there are a number of surprises that unfold as the novel progresses, keeping things moving with rarely a dull moment in the story. The sense of place is vividly evoked as the reader travels through the fens and wild landscape of Lincolnshire (where it "would not have been strange to peep between the fence posts and see Lady Dedlock out a-wandering"), as well as through the upper-class London neighborhoods and their counterparts in the seamier sides of the city. And Epsom, just before and during the Derby, comes alive with its sights, smells, noise and carnival-like atmosphere, all beautifully imagined by the author. Subplots abound as in any good Victorian drama, and the ever-expanding cast of characters presents a range of personalities: the cream of London society, a young governess in the bleak Lincolnshire countryside, an enigmatic jewel thief whose past is his major preoccupation, a disgraced army officer who frequents the billiard halls (a nod to Thackeray's "English Raff," from his Book of Snobs,) an older jockey on the portly side and the crowds who attend the Derby, to name a few. Twists of fate and "odd conjunctions" bring these people together from time to time, making for great dynamic among the characters, but most especially between Happerton and his wife. While Mrs. Carmody's Book of Genteel Behavior of 1861 offers the Victorian woman tips about married life and one's place in society, Mrs. Happerton turns Mrs. Carmody's advice on its head, to the point where the reader begins to doubt who really has the upper hand in that relationship.

Derby Day is one of those books that will appeal to a wide variety of readers -- it is filled with plotting and machinations that will satisfy readers of melodrama and mystery, it offers an intriguing portrait of a slice of time for historical fiction readers, and its constant nod to Thackeray throughout the novel will make Victorian fiction readers happy as well. If I have any complaints, they are minor -- the amount of subplots is a bit dizzying at times, as are the number of new characters that appear here and there that tended to distract my reading flow. Otherwise, Derby Day is highly entertaining, and I can definitely recommend it. ( )