The Lessons (2010)

by Naomi Alderman

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219	4	123,093	(3.3)	13
Hidden away in an Oxford backstreet is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess keys to its unassuming front gate. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous.Mark gathers around him an impressionable group of students: glamorous Emmanuella, who always has a new boyfriend in tow; Franny and Simon, best friends and occasional lovers; musician Jess, whose calm exterior hides passionate depths. And James, already damaged by Oxford and looking for a group to belong to.For a time they live in a charmed world of learning and parties and love affairs. But university is no grounding for adult life, and when, years later, tragedy strikes, they are entirely unprepared.… (more)

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If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio (dmenon90)
dmenon90: Academic setting, a group of young and close friends, possible hidden relationship between two members, a great tragedy that is their undoing, though in Alderman's book this tragedy is not a crime.

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A man made of smoke.

Utterly beautiful and heartbreaking. (

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rjcrunden | Feb 2, 2021 |

This was my first encounter with Naomi Alderman's writing and it turned out to be very appealing: the spiritual love-child of The Secret History and Brideshead Revisited, which are two of my favourite novels. It follows the isolated, agnostic James who arrives as an undergraduate in Oxford, only to find that a running accident in his first term brings him into the orbit of the beautiful, fabulously rich and self-consciously dissolute Mark Winters. This troubled but captivating young man will come to influence not only James's time at Oxford but his life far beyond that. Conjuring up the intense feel of student life and undergraduate friendships, the book never quite shakes off the shadow of Brideshead (with which it shares a great deal), but nevertheless it's elegant, sensitive and thoroughly nostalgic.

For a more extensive review, please see my blog:
http://theidlewoman.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-lessons-naomi-alderman.html (

)

TheIdleWoman | Nov 10, 2013 |

http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Lessons_by_Naomi_Alderma... (

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elkiedee | Apr 13, 2010 |

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Dublin Literary Award (Longlist – 2012)

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Canonical title

The Lessons

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2010

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Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK

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Epigraph

Dedication

For my grandmother Lily

First words

When I returned from San Ceterino late in the afternoon, I found that Mark and his friends had thrown half the food in our kitchen into the swimming pool.

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Hidden away in an Oxford backstreet is a crumbling Georgian mansion, unknown to any but the few who possess keys to its unassuming front gate. Its owner is the mercurial, charismatic Mark Winters, whose rackety trust-fund upbringing has left him as troubled and unpredictable as he is wildly promiscuous.Mark gathers around him an impressionable group of students: glamorous Emmanuella, who always has a new boyfriend in tow; Franny and Simon, best friends and occasional lovers; musician Jess, whose calm exterior hides passionate depths. And James, already damaged by Oxford and looking for a group to belong to.For a time they live in a charmed world of learning and parties and love affairs. But university is no grounding for adult life, and when, years later, tragedy strikes, they are entirely unprepared.

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