I give it a resounding BBB (beautiful British book) rating.
It encompasses themes of bildungsroman, realism (class war, novel of manners), and a love story doomed from its inception.
The setting is the start of 20th century, almost end of the Victorian era.
The style and diction is signature British with its wry wit, civil dialogue and actions sprinkled with gossamer tenderness.
Ali Smith in her Guardian article about the book:
"Can a book ambush you? From the prologue ('Are you vanquished, Colston, are you vanquished?') to the epilogue ('Tell him there's no spell or curse except an unloving heart') it felt, as I reread, uncannily familiar, like something I knew – and had no idea I knew – by heart."
It encompasses themes of bildungsroman, realism (class war, novel of manners), and a love story doomed from its inception.
The setting is the start of 20th century, almost end of the Victorian era.
The style and diction is signature British with its wry wit, civil dialogue and actions sprinkled with gossamer tenderness.
Ali Smith in her Guardian article about the book:
"Can a book ambush you? From the prologue ('Are you vanquished, Colston, are you vanquished?') to the epilogue ('Tell him there's no spell or curse except an unloving heart') it felt, as I reread, uncannily familiar, like something I knew – and had no idea I knew – by heart."