Restoration: A Novel of Seventeenth-Century England (Tie-In Edition) - Softcover

Tremain, Rose

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140244883 ISBN 13: 9780140244885

Publisher: Penguin Group USA, 1994

Synopsis

In seventeenth-century England, the King ensures his mistress's safety by having Robert Merivel, son of a glovemaker, marry her, but Merivel falls in love with his wife, is cast out of courtly life, and finds refuge working with the insane at New Bedlam

About this title

About the Author

ROSE TREMAIN's bestselling novels have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music and Silence), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina Etranger (Sacred Country). Restoration, the first of her novels to feature Robert Merivel, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in1989 and made into a film in 1995. Her short story, 'Moth', was also filmed (as the award-winning Ricky) by François Ozon in 2009. Her most recent novel, Trespass, was a Richard and Judy Bookclub Choice. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

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.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0140244883
• ISBN 13: 9780140244885
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384