Edith Holler
by Edward Carey
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Description
"The witty and entrancing story of a young woman trapped in a ramshackle English playhouse-and the mysterious figure who threatens the theater's very survival. The year is 1901. England's beloved queen has died, and her aging son has finally taken the throne. In the eastern city of Norwich, bright and inquisitive young Edith Holler spends her days among the boisterous denizens of the Holler Theatre, warned by her domineering father that the playhouse will literally tumble down if she should show more ever leave its confines. Fascinated by tales of the city she knows only from afar, she decides to write a play of her own: a stage adaptation of the legend of Mawther Meg, a vicious figure said to have used the blood of countless children to make the local delicacy known as Beetle Spread. But when her father suddenly announces his engagement to a peculiar, imposing woman named Margaret Unthank, heir to the actual Beetle Spread fortune, Edith scrambles to protect her father, the theater, and her play-the one thing that's truly hers-from the newcomer's sinister designs. Teeming with unforgettable characters, and illuminated by the author's trademark fantastical illustrations, Edith Holler is a surprisingly modern fable of one young woman's struggle to escape her family's control- and to reveal inconvenient truths about the way children are used"-- show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Edith Holler by Edward Carey (Riverhead Books, 2023) is excellent literary fiction if one is looking for something dark and unsettling to read. It has everything one seeks out in a Gothic tale – a decrepit theater building, mysterious corridors, dungeons, and tunnels. It has theater sets, props, stage dummies and mysterious disappearances. There is the usual insanity of the theater but some active participants experience not-so-usual mental breaks. One has to deal with the front-of-house staff as much as with the backstage crew. All seem slightly disconnected from reality.
Managing the macabre mixed in with 1903 Edwardian theater, Edward Carey offers a fascinating combination of folklore (the beetles!) and history associated with show more England’s Old City of Norwich where the novel’s action takes place. Being both an illustrator as well as a novelist, Carey includes his own drawings throughout the novel and even offers a paper toy theater, downloadable from his site.
NPR named Edith Holler as its best book of 2023. I encountered it when the Folgers Shakespeare Library included it in 2024 as a book club selection. Even with those spotlights trained on the book, I doubt that enough readers have discovered this marvelous novel. If you enjoy the spirit of live theater, Edith Holler offers a wonderful reading experience with a satisfying end. show less
Managing the macabre mixed in with 1903 Edwardian theater, Edward Carey offers a fascinating combination of folklore (the beetles!) and history associated with show more England’s Old City of Norwich where the novel’s action takes place. Being both an illustrator as well as a novelist, Carey includes his own drawings throughout the novel and even offers a paper toy theater, downloadable from his site.
NPR named Edith Holler as its best book of 2023. I encountered it when the Folgers Shakespeare Library included it in 2024 as a book club selection. Even with those spotlights trained on the book, I doubt that enough readers have discovered this marvelous novel. If you enjoy the spirit of live theater, Edith Holler offers a wonderful reading experience with a satisfying end. show less
spooky fiction, set in 1901 Norwich, Norfolk, England. written during the COVID 19 pandemic.
November2023 bingo challenge; recommended on youtube, character is a writer
Carey's peculiar brand of old-timey horror (sometimes gory but not in a realistic way) wins again, set in a fabulously ramshackle old theater.
November2023 bingo challenge; recommended on youtube, character is a writer
Carey's peculiar brand of old-timey horror (sometimes gory but not in a realistic way) wins again, set in a fabulously ramshackle old theater.
So funky and weird and I loved it and I loved Edith. This has the strangest most bizarre tone, and it's so so British(in a good way)
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Artistic vision, wit, and the creatively grotesque intermingle in Carey's literary historical fantasy.... This quirky homage to Carey's childhood home, which bursts with personality and his expressive pencil drawings (and multiple ghosts), underscores the importance of listening to children.
added by Lemeritus
Carey (Little) draws on fairy tales and Shakespeare for a dazzling bildungsroman. In 1901 Norwich, 12-year-old Edith Holler lives in her family’s dilapidated theater, where she fills her days reading books on the city’s past. From them she learns that hundreds of children have inexplicably died or vanished from Norwich over the centuries....Edith says her theatrical friends “strive to show more make the impossible possible” to “convince our public of fantastical personages and happenings.” On these grounds, Carey unquestionably succeeds. This affirms the author’s standing as a major literary talent. show less
added by Lemeritus
comic novel (tinged with gothic elements) about a girl trapped in her family’s theater in Norwich, England in 1901. When Edith Holler—the precocious 12-year-old narrator of this twisty tale—was christened, an old actress put a curse on her: If the girl ever stepped outside, she would die and the “entire theatre would come tumbling down.” Afterward, the story goes, the actress show more exploded, spattering blood everywhere. But is the story real?.... In ways both witty and dark, the novel brilliantly probes the distinction between drama and real life, audience and performer, actor and character. And the whimsical illustrations, all drawn by Carey himself, are the perfect accompaniment to a story about an art form as visual as it is verbal. A wonderfully strange and quirky tale about the power of penning and performing tales. show less
added by Lemeritus
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70 works; 1 member
Author Information
15+ Works 2,321 Members
Only thirty years old, Edward Carey has already achieved success as a playwright & as an illustrator. (Bowker Author Biography)
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Edith Holler
- Epigraph
- That, if I then had waked after long sleep / Will make me sleep again; and then, in dreaming / The clouds methought would open and show riches / Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked / I cried to dream again. -William Sha... (show all)kespeare, The Tempest, Act III, Scene II
And sometimes sent my ships in fleets / All up and down among the sheets; / Or brought my trees and houses out, / And planted cities all about. -Robert Louise Stevenson, The Land of Counterpane
The Harlots cry from Street to Street / Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet / The Winners Shout the Losers Curse / Dance before Dead Englands Hearse / Every Night & Every Morn / Some to Misery are Born / Every Morn & every... (show all) Night / Some are Born to sweet Delight / Some are Born to sweet Delight / Some are Born to Endless Night. -William Blake, The Auguries of Innocence - Dedication
- For Oliver
- First words
- In Great Britain, in England, on the bump on the right that is about halfway down the country, by which I mean the rounded bit that has a pleasant and generous look to it, something like the handle of a favorite teacup, or th... (show all)e curve of a lovely ear, is East Anglia. -Chapter 1, At Home
- Canonical DDC/MDS
- 823.914
- Canonical LCC
- PR6053.A6813
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 105
- Popularity
- 308,622
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.21)
- Languages
- English, German, Italian
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 11
- ASINs
- 2
