Some reviewers stated that Merivel doesn’t change, and I would have to disagree – the reduced circumstances he lives through do impact him, although he perhaps isn’t able to see it for himself. Merivel is, at the beginning of the story (and indeed in several episodes throughout), a very weak fellow. In his pursuit of pleasures, finery, and a courtier lifestyle at Whitehall, he loses sight (if indeed he ever had it) of the important things in life. The book follows the misadventures of Robert Merivel, who is really immature and even a little thick at times, despite being a rather gifted physician. Tremain’s book is written in the first person, which doesn’t usually work for me, but I really enjoyed this. Mu hair (what is left of it) is the colour of sand and wiry as hogs’ bristles my ears are of uneven size my forehead is splattered with freckles my nose…is unceremoniously flat, as if I had been hit at birth. Without my periwig, I am an affront to neatness. There is humour throughout the story, and I particularly enjoyed Merivel’s description of himself in the first chapter: The paperback copy I own from Vintage is 399 pages and the unabridged audio version is a little over 13 hours long. That being said, it is lamentable that it took until 2015 for me to get around to reading it. Originally published back in 1989, I was but four years old and obviously far too young to read it. Rose Tremain’s Restoration is probably one of the most popular novels set in the seventeenth century, and with good reason: it’s a great book.
0 kommentar(er)
