Restoration - Softcover

Tremain, Rose

Softcover

ISBN 10: 009953195X ISBN 13: 9780099531951

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2009

Synopsis

Robert Merivel is a dissolute young medical student when an accident of fate leads him to the attention of King Charles II. Finding favour with the King, Merivel embarks on the time of his life, enthusiastically enjoying the luxury, women and wine of the vibrant royal court, until he is called upon to serve his monarch in an unusual role. However, when he fails at the one thing the King demands of him he is cast out from his new-found paradise.

Determined to be restored to the King’s favour, Merivel begins a journey to self-knowledge that takes him to the depths of seventeenth-century society.

About this title

About the Author:

Rose Tremain’s novels have won many prizes. Her most recent novels are The Road Home and The Colour (shortlisted for the Orange Prize). The Darkness of Wallis Simpson was shortlisted for both the First National Short Story Award and the Frank O’Connor Award. Restoration was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and was made into a film.

From Publishers Weekly:

The double import of Tremain's title--it refers both to the reign of the 17th-century Restoration King Charles II and to the restoration to the protagonist of his beloved home and aspirations for his life--is one of the subtle delights of this accomplished novel, shortlisted for the Booker and winner of other awards in Britain. The story is of one man's rise and fall and rise again, of his discovery of love and faith, and his emotional maturation in a crucible of harrowing experiences. In a larger sense, however, it is a social, cultural and psychological picture of that age, when bluebloods lived in gaudy excess but others were expected to be content in their "appointed stations." Through the whim of his adored monarch, narrator Robert Merivel becomes veterinarian to the Royal Dogs, unofficial Fool, and "paid cuckold," when he marries the King's mistress, Celia Clemence, on condition that he himself will never fall in love with her. Having unwittingly succumbed to that forbidden emotion, Merivel is cast off by both wife and King, and must join his dour Quaker friend Pearce working in a lunatic asylum in remote, bleak Whittlesea. Another tragic loss sends him back to plague-ridden London, where his life comes full turn. Merivel embodies the contradictions of his era: though he is vain, frivolous and cynical, he is also a man of sensibility, intelligence and imaginative daring; his wry, witty voice holds the reader absorbed. A thoroughly satisfying read, the complex plot is augmented by acutely observed historical detail, nuanced character development, humor and poignancy.
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About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Books
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 009953195X
• ISBN 13: 9780099531951
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384