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Chargement... Kept: A Victorian Mystery (original 2006; édition 2007)par D. J. Taylor (Auteur)
Information sur l'oeuvreKept par D. J. Taylor (2006)
   Aucun Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre.  Violetthedwarf | Oct 23, 2014 |   Utterly unsatisfying and confusing. Look, I read Victorian novels for fun. A book like this should have been my sort of thing. I just don't think Taylor did the Victoriana well. It was far too knowing at times, and far too earnest and others - and honestly, Taylor isn't good enough at writing characters that sound different to manage a book of this scope. It's too easy to get confused between the characters as they all seem so similar. (  ) Violetthedwarf | Oct 23, 2014 |  ) mlfhlibrarian | Nov 11, 2013 |  ) dsc73277 | Sep 14, 2010 | The Story starts interestingly enough with the seemingly unrelated deaths of two gentleman and the decent into madness of a young widow who is then in effect imprissioned in a decaying country estate belonging to a strange elderly gentleman entrusted with her care. However the story then takes a long time to come together, with each chapter featuring various, at times, seemingly unconnected people or events including, a pet mouse, a wolf, a failed grocery salesman, a train robbery, lawyers, mens clubs, a pushy mother and other seedy characters. I admit at times to considering putting the book aside. I was glad when I reached the end, where I suppose after what seemed a very long time,everything did come together. Overall though, It didn't live up to the cover blurb. ( ) PriscillaM | Mar 21, 2010 |
 DJ Taylor has crafted a satisfying 19th-century soup, but fails to engage the emotions in Kept, says Susan Hill  This clever and hugely readable novel constantly subverts its readers' expectations. It would be unfair to reveal the ending but it is fair to say that Taylor promises, tongue in cheek, one sort of novel and gives us quite another. Julian Barnes in Arthur and George developed a documentary approach which produced something that was more history than fiction and will prove to be a fertile innovation. D.J. Taylor, in this novel with footnotes, extracts, and appendices, is blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction yet further. It is a powerful contribution to the changing practice of historical fiction, and it succeeds as a novel in its own right. ‘Pon my word it does! Distinctions
Egg-stealing in the Scottish highlands, fraud and felony on the streets of London, and strange goings-on in the fensa Captivating and ingenious, full of suspense and teeming with life, KEPT is a Victorian mystery about the extreme and curious things men do to get what they want. August 1863. Henry Ireland, a failed landowner, dies unexpectedly in a riding accident, leaving a highly-strung young widow. Not far away lives Ireland's friend James Dixey, a celebrated naturalist who collects strange trophies, a stuffed bear, a pet mouse, and a wolf that he keeps caged in the grounds of his decaying house, lost in the fog on the edge of the fens. The poachers, Dewar and Dunbar, with their cargo of pilfered eggs; Esther the observant kitchen maid, pining to be re-united with her vanished admirer; the ancient lawyer Mr Crabbe made careless by snobbery; John Carstairs, in search of his cousin, the elusive widow; an enigmatic debt-collector, busily plotting an audacious robbery; various low-life henchmen; and Captain McTurk of Scotland Yard, patiently investigating the circumstances of the Mr Ireland's death and many other things besidesu all are drawn into a net of intrigue with wide and sinister implications. Ranging from the lochsides of Scotland to the slums of Clerkenwell, and from the gentlemen's clubs of St James's to the Yukon wilds, KEPT is a gorgeously intricate novel about the urge to possess, at once a gripping investigation of some of the secret chambers of the human heart and a dazzling re-invention of Victorian life and passions Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
Discussion en coursAucunCouvertures populaires
 Google Books — Chargement...GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)823.914Literature English English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999Classification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne: (2.94)
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7
Utterly unsatisfying and confusing.
Look, I read Victorian novels for fun. A book like this should have been my sort of thing. I just don't think Taylor did the Victoriana well. It was far too knowing at times, and far too earnest and others - and honestly, Taylor isn't good enough at writing characters that sound different to manage a book of this scope. It's too easy to get confused between the characters as they all seem so similar. (