The aforementioned Sugar – enterprising and smart a devotee of Dale Carnalgie’s How to Win Johns and Manipulate People riveting to see how her people smarts and hooker’s talent for prevarication play out in chess matches of actions and reactions.Īgnes – William’s wife who is actually somewhat deranged (we as readers are clued in to the cause even though the characters are not) beautiful yet naïve almost laughably shallow by modern standards as the product of a finishing school. The aforementioned William – self-centered but not entirely vile a would-be essayist and wag a man defined and even a bit constrained by his social standing and the times. What follows is a whole lot of interplay between these characters and a well-drawn host of others.
He takes over his father’s business, enjoys a quick reversal of fortune, and sees to Sugar’s ascent from the squalor so that he can have her all to himself. William Rackham, the purposeless heir to a perfume manufacturer, meets Sugar, the clever and willing young prostitute who suddenly fills him with ambition. I will summarize the inside flap, though, which I figure is fair game. The narrator/tour guide will get to what’s relevant when the time is right. I think it’s a disservice to reveal much of the plot. You’re in very deep soon enough, utterly beguiled.Ĭharacter-driven, with the plot riding shotgun Right from the very beginning this omniscient fellow speaks directly to you, promises you intimate details (some of which are dark and surprising, even a bit graphic), and lures you straight into 1875. He’s wise about people, too, their quirks and motivations, independent of setting. Transitions back and forth between our modern perspectives and their older, more circumscribed ones are virtually seamless. He knows all about Victorian England – its people, its paradoxes – and what’s more, he knows what you don’t know but would find fascinating. To begin, please create in your mind’s eye (and ear) the most interesting tour guide imaginable. A word of warning, my friends: I’ll be giving this the hard sell.
0 kommentar(er)
