Janet Gleeson

Marvelous! Great story, vivid setting, and characters both endearing and realistically nasty. I particularly loved the process of the protagonist thinking through the mystery while she jellied her knuckle of mutton and strung her cardoons- but then I'm a foodie and interested in historical food details. Well done!

Who would have thought that a book about the history of European porcelain manufacturing would be a fun read? But that’s exactly what The Arcanum is and it makes this history read like a novel. It is the story of a Johann Frederick Bottger, a precocious young 18th century chemist who in a misguided attempt to prove his worthiness to a King (August the Strong of Saxony and Poland) promises that he has the ability to create gold out of ordinary metals. The King orders Bottger locked away in show more a castle for years so that he can provide this creation for the King’s benefit.

Eventually, in desperation for some freedom and to avoid execution for fraudulently representing himself, Bottger instead comes up with the formula (the Arcanum) for making hard porcelain in the manner of the Chinese. Chinese porcelain had been highly prized in Europe for its delicacy, beauty and durability. The Europeans could not replicate porcelain until Bottger figured out how. Once he did, August the Strong opened a factory in Meissen, Germany (where it still remains) which produced highly sought beautiful and delicate objects. The book details the intrigues in the factory as well as the plots and conspiracies throughout Europe in efforts to steal the porcelain formula and compete with August’s monopoly on this lucrative, highly desired and valuable luxury.

It really is a fascinating and enjoyable story and Gleeson manages to provide historical and political background as well as a real taste of life in the 1700’s in Europe. If I have one complaint about the book, it is that there are no photos of Meissen porcelain. Given that Meissen established the precedent for this decorative art in Europe, it seems that the inclusion of photos of the porcelain would have added a lot to the book and the lack of photography is a huge omission. Simply put, seeing examples of Meissen would have visually answered the question of what the fuss was all about 300 years ago. show less

I was coaxed into reading this by blurbs on the cover praising previous Gleeson novels, tagged by reviewers as "masterful" and "elegant." In retrospect, however, I probably should have been suspicious that none of the blurbs referenced *this* novel specifically. Because, to be frank, I found nothing "compelling" or "galloping" in this particular outing - merely a very basic mystery plot overlaid by a veneer of period polish.

And even veneer of period polish isn't very compelling, as the show more story takes place at an English country estate, a peculiarly timeless setting. (The operation of English manor houses having remained essentially unchanged for millenia.) The author tries to get over this by incorporating a *lot* of detail re. furnishings and clothing (prepare yourself for in-depth descriptions of every outfit), but it's not enough to create any sort of immersive period ambiance, any more than Gleeson's penchant for endlessly describing the microexpressions of characters is enough to create emotional or psychological authenticity.

The MC/sleuth, reknown portrait painter Joshua Pope, never distinguishes himself in any particular way except, perhaps, his propensity for tediously recapping every possible clue just in case the reader wasn't paying sufficient attention. (He's neither likeable nor unlikeable, clever nor foolish, interesting nor uninteresting - just kind of blah.) The parts of this devoted to the process of portrait painting do feel authentic, but were not as interesting or informative as I'd hoped. After the first time Pope describes his pallet, there's not a lot of value-added the other three times he does so.

Feel like I should warn purists that this thing is riddled with plot holes, some of them offputtingly glaring. The characters are two-dimensional, the motives strained, and coincidence plays much more of a role than it should in a genre that's supposed to be about logic and puzzle-solving. Finally, this hits as much wordier than it needs to be - feel like even a moderately skilled editor could have cut 100+ pages without compromising anything in the way of character development, plot development, or ambiance.

Not an unpleasant read, but disappointed that I invested so much time in something that turned out to be so untidy, sluggish, and forgettable. show less

Marvelous! Great story, vivid setting, and characters both endearing and realistically nasty. I particularly loved the process of the protagonist thinking through the mystery while she jellied her knuckle of mutton and strung her cardoons- but then I'm a foodie and interested in historical food details. Well done!