The Underground Man - Softcover

Jackson, Mick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330349562 ISBN 13: 9780330349567

Publisher: Picador, 1998

Synopsis

The fifth Duke of Portland is a Victorian misfit, man who spends his time and wealth creating a network of tunnels beneath his Nottinghamshire estate. As he withdraws further from society he falls prey to his lonely self-absorption and to the mercy of his household staff. His rare appearances are misinterpreted and local gossip has inflated his eccentricities into sinister deformities.

No one, not even he, understands his most persistent ache, a pain of absence that no amount of tunnelling or searching can bring to light. The Duke’s slow piecing together of the truth about his past builds to an intensely moving and powerful conclusion.

‘The narrative structure is immaculate, the characterization superb, the prose so polished you can see your face in it’ Max Davidson, Daily Telegraph

‘Soaked through with originality and expertly written: tragicomic fiction with the most endearingly sympathetic of anti-heroes’ Dominic Bradbury, The Times

‘A remarkable balancing act, witty, restrained and shot through with interesting tensions. As a first novel it is, quite simply, astonishing’ Christina Patterson, Observer

‘A strong narrative drive, a Gothic twist and a wonderful cast of secondary characters make this an entrancingly readable book. What lifts it into the prize-deserving category is Jackson’s uncannily visual prose’ Miranda Seymour, Sunday Telegraph

About this title

Review

Mick Jackson makes films. It's no surprise, then, that his first novel, The Underground Man, should be so economically told, the action evoking a mise en scène. The novel takes the form of journal entries interspersed with eyewitness accounts from servants and neighbors. The "Underground Man" portrayed in the novel, William John Cavendish Bentinck-Scott, the Duke of Portland and a resident of Nottinghamshire, England, is mightily eccentric; the man was real (1800-1879), as was his eccentricity. Historical fact: the Duke commissioned eight tunnels on his estate. Present-day fact: if you walk the estate today, you see the skylights--2' in diameter and 4" thick. But why did he build them?

In the last few days of the Duke's life, eccentricity burgeons; madness follows. The reader learns that his odd view of the world was shaped by early tragedy, the full truth of which is withheld until the last few pages.

The Underground Man is that most delectable blend of fact and fiction, one in which the intriguing details of a real life are richly explored through imagination.

About the Author

Mick Jackson was born in Great Harwood in Lancashire, England. His first novel, The Underground Man, was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award and won the Royal Society of Authors' First Novel Award. While researching Five Boys, he enrolled in beekeeping classes and to this day, keeps two hives at his home in Brighton, England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0330349562
• ISBN 13: 9780330349567
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272