Items related to Crimson Petal & the White
Synopsis
Gripping from the first page, this immense novel is an intoxicating and deeply satisfying read. This is Faber's most ambitious fictional creation yet and affirms his position as one of the most talented writers working in Britain today. Sugar, an alluring, 19-year-old whore in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs Castaway, yea
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Review
Although it's billed as "the first great 19th-century novel of the 21st century," The Crimson Petal and the White is anything but Victorian. The story of a well-read London prostitute named Sugar, who spends her free hours composing a violent, pornographic screed against men, Michel Faber's dazzling second novel dares to go where George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss and the works of Charles Dickens could not. We learn about the positions and orifices that Sugar and her clients favor, about her lingering skin condition, and about the suspect ingredients of her prophylactic douches. Still, Sugar believes she can make a better life for herself. When she is taken up by a wealthy man, the perfumer William Rackham, her wings are clipped, and she must balance financial security against the obvious servitude of her position. The physical risks and hardships of Sugar's life (and the even harder "honest" life she would have led as a factory worker) contrast--yet not entirely--with the medical mistreatment of her benefactor's wife, Agnes, and beautifully underscore Faber's emphasis on class and sexual politics. In theme and treatment, this is a novel that Virginia Woolf might have written, had she been born 70 years later. The language, however, is Faber's own--brisk and elastic--and, after an awkward opening, the plethora of detail he offers (costume, food, manners, cheap stage performances, the London streets) slides effortlessly into his forward-moving sentences. When Agnes goes mad, for instance, "she sings on and on, while the house is discreetly dusted all around her and, in the concealed and subterranean kitchen, a naked duck, limp and faintly steaming, spreads its pimpled legs on a draining board." Despite its 800-plus pages, The Crimson Petal and the White turns out to be a quick read, since it is truly impossible to put down. --Regina Marler
Book Description
Published in hardcover by Harcourt, 2002, 0-15-100692-X
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherCanongate Books Ltd
- Publication date2002
- ISBN 10 1841953245
- ISBN 13 9781841953243
- BindingPaperback
- Rating
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The Crimson Petal And The White
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR002388627
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The Crimson Petal And The White
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR002704408
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THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE.
Published by
Canongate Books Ltd 01/01/2002, 2002
ISBN 10: 1841953245
ISBN 13: 9781841953243
Used
Softcover
Seller: AwesomeBooks, Wallingford, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. . Seller Inventory # 7719-9781841953243
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THE CRIMSON PETAL AND THE WHITE.
Published by
Canongate Books Ltd 01/01/2002, 2002
ISBN 10: 1841953245
ISBN 13: 9781841953243
Used
Softcover
Seller: Bahamut Media, Reading, United Kingdom
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Condition: Very Good. Shipped within 24 hours from our UK warehouse. Clean, undamaged book with no damage to pages and minimal wear to the cover. Spine still tight, in very good condition. Remember if you are not happy, you are covered by our 100% money back guarantee. Seller Inventory # 6545-9781841953243
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The Crimson Petal and the White
Seller: Book Express (NZ), Wellington, New Zealand
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. 864 pages. Cover wornWatch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them . . .' So begins this irresistible voyage into the dark side of Victorian London. Amongst an unforgettable cast of low-lifes, physicians, businessmen and prostitutes, meet our heroine Sugar, a young woman trying to drag herself up from the . Seller Inventory # 3379q
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The Crimson Petal and the White
Seller: Book Express (NZ), Wellington, New Zealand
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. 856 pages. Cover wornSugar, a 19-year-old whore in the brothel of Mrs Castaway, yearns for a better life. Her ascent through the strata of 1870s London society offers the reader a host of characters. At the heart of the story, however, is a young woman's struggle to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. Seller Inventory # 2362i
Quantity: 1 available
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The Crimson Petal and the White
Seller: Book Express (NZ), Wellington, New Zealand
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. 864 pages. 'Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them . . .' n nSo begins this irresistible voyage into the dark side of Victorian London. Amongst an unforgettable cast of low-lifes, physicians, businessmen and prostitutes, meet our heroine Sugar, a young woman trying to drag herself up from the gutter . Seller Inventory # 3747g
Quantity: 1 available
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The Crimson Petal And The White
Published by
Canongate Books Ltd, Edinburgh, 2002
ISBN 10: 1841953245
ISBN 13: 9781841953243
Used
Paperback
First Edition
Seller: Marlowes Books and Music, Ferny Grove, QLD, Australia
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. First Edition. 833 pages. Book is in Very good condition throughout. This Takes Us Back To The 1870s Where Sugar, An Alluring, Nineteen Year Old Whore, Yearns For A Better Life. Seller Inventory # 157370
Quantity: 1 available
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The Crimson Petal And the White
Seller: Book Haven, Wellington, WLG, New Zealand
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Fair. The Crimson Petal and the Whitetakes us back to the 1870s where Sugar, an alluring, nineteen-year-old whore, yearns for a better life. Her ascent through the strata of London society introduces us to a host of loveable, maddening, superbly realised characters - an egotistical perfume manufacturer, his unhinged wife, his pious brother, his hidden child, preening socialites, guttersnipes, whores for all tastes and those zealous would-be reformers of fallen women, the Rescue Society. At the heart of this panoramic, multi-layered narrative is one young woman's compelling struggle to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. Although Michel Faber's stunning historical vision illuminates Sugar as a creature of her time, his compassion and insight gives her timeless and universal appeal. Gripping from the first page, this immense novel of Victorian proportions is an extraordinarily rich, intricate, intoxicating and deeply satisfying read. Foxing on some pages. Heavy. 838 pages. Seller Inventory # 1417773
Quantity: 1 available
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The Crimson Petal and the White
Seller: Jason Books, Auckland, AUCKL, New Zealand
Seller rating 4 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Writing on rear cover. Export and Airside ed. At the heart of this panoramic, multidimensional narrative is the compelling struggle of a young woman to lift her body and soul out of the gutter. Faber leads us back to 1870s London, where Sugar, a nineteen-year-old whore in the brothel of the terrifying Mrs. Castaway, yearns for escape to a better life. Her ascent through the strata of Victorian society offers us intimacy with a host of lovable, maddening, unforgettable characters. They begin with William Rackham, an egotistical perfume magnate whose ambition is fueled by his lust for Sugar, and whose patronage brings her into proximity to his extended family and milieu: his unhinged, childlike wife, Agnes, who manages to overcome her chronic hysteria to make her appearances during “the Season”; his mysteriously hidden-away daughter, Sophie, left to the care of minions; his pious brother, Henry, foiled in his devotional calling by a persistently less-than-chaste love for the Widow Fox, whose efforts on behalf of The Rescue Society lead Henry into ever-more disturbing confrontations with flesh; all this overseen by assorted preening socialites, drunken journalists, untrustworthy servants, vile guttersnipes, and whores of all stripes and persuasions. Twenty years in its conception, research, and writing, The Crimson Petal and the White is teeming with life, rich in texture and incident, with characters breathtakingly real. In a class by itself, it's a big, juicy, must-read of a novel that will delight, enthrall, provoke, and entertain young and old, male and female. Seller Inventory # 13248748
Quantity: 3 available