Merivel: A Man Of His Time

Description

From the author of The Gustav SonataThe wonderful new historical novel set in seventeenth-century England from Rose Tremain, author of Restoration (shortlisted for the Booker Prize), The Road Home (winner of the Orange Prize) and Trespass (a Richard & Judy pick). Merivel has been called 'wonderfully entertaining? (Guardian Books of the Year) and 'an unadulterated delight? (Independent) and has been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction.The gaudy years of the Restoration are long gone and Robert Merivel, physician and courtier to King Charles II, sets off for the French court in search of a fresh start. But royal life at the Palace of Versailles - all glitter in front and squalor behind - leaves him in despair, until a chance encounter with the seductive Madame de Flamanville, allows him to dream of a different future. But will that future ever be his? Summoned home urgently to attend to the ailing King, Merivel finds his loyalty and skill tested to their limits.Over a million Rose Tremain books sold'A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion? Independent I'There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain? Irish Times'Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect? The Times'Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists? Salman Rushdie'Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness? Marcel Theroux, Guardian

Promotion info

The major new novel from prize-winning bestseller Rose Tremain, set in Restoration England - shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction

Awards

Shortlisted for Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2013.

Reviews

"One of the great imaginative creations in English literature" Daily Telegraph "An unadulterated delight" Independent "Rich and satisfying" -- Lindsay Duguid Sunday Times "A tour de force of literary technique, a treasure house of diligent research and imaginative ingenuity" -- Jane Shilling Telegraph "Wonderfully entertaining" -- Michael Holroyd Guardian, Books of the Year "Her feeling for the spirit of the times is triumphant" -- Charlotte Moore Spectator "A rich, glowing portrait" -- Daisy Hay Observer "Her characters laugh, cry, plot and flounder so convincingly that they take up residence in your head and refuse to go away" -- Mary Crockett Scotland on Sunday "This book is richly marbled with intelligence, compassion and compelling characters, leavened with flourishes of lyricism and an attractive tolerance towards human frailties" -- Angus Clarke The Times "What ultimately makes the book such a joy is simply being in Merivel's company. His narration is by turns rueful, comic, despairing and joyful; but it's always bursting with life, always good-hearted - and always entirely loveable" -- James Walton Daily Mail "A delight" -- Lucy Beresford Literary Review "At times witty and enchanting, on other occasions full of doubt and self-loathing, Merivel remains a stunning achievement. He is Everyman and speaks to us all" -- Virginia Blackburn Sunday Express "Exuberance is a very hard thing to sustain in a novel. However, Tremain brings it off brilliantly. As one might expect, this is a very funny novel, full of picaresque adventure, hapless accidents and ingeniously wrought slapstick. However, it is also a very moving and beautiful novel. There are passages here which I found myself reading over and over again simply in order to savour them. Merivel: A Man of His Time may have been a long time coming, but it's been well worth the wait" -- John Preston Mail on Sunday "Merivel is excellent company. Writing with a mimic's ear for conversation, whimsical one moment, grave the next, Tremain has an underlying preoccupation here: the last third of live, love and loss, loneliness and vanity" -- Maggie Fergusson Intelligent Life "Tremain writes beautifully about Reniassance England but it's the glittering paradoxes of Merivel's character that here leap fully formed from the page" -- Claire Allfree Metro "Tremain's novel experiments continually with light and shade - she expertly paints a picture with three dimensions and real feeling" -- Lesley McDowall Scotsman

Author description

Rose Tremain is one of the best loved and most respected novelists writing today. Her bestselling novels have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina Etranger (Sacred Country). Restoration was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1989 and made into a film in 1995. Her short story, 'Moth', was also filmed (as the award-winning Ricky) by Francois 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.