Restoration - Softcover

Tremain, Rose

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0340530448 ISBN 13: 9780340530443

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton, 1995

Synopsis

Robert Merivel abandons his medical studies for the vibrant Court of Charles II, where he finds unexpected favour with the King and serves as a 'paper groom' to the youngest of the royal mistresses. But by falling in love with her, Merivel violates the one rule that will cast him out from his new found paradise. Driven to work in a Quaker Bedlam, he must endure a yet more painful fall from grace before he can achieve spiritual and social restoration.

About this title

About the Author:

Rose Tremain has written numerous plays for radio and television as well as many novels. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

From Publishers Weekly:

The double import of Tremain's title--it refers both to the reign of the 17th-century Restoration King Charles II and to the restoration to the protagonist of his beloved home and aspirations for his life--is one of the subtle delights of this accomplished novel, shortlisted for the Booker and winner of other awards in Britain. The story is of one man's rise and fall and rise again, of his discovery of love and faith, and his emotional maturation in a crucible of harrowing experiences. In a larger sense, however, it is a social, cultural and psychological picture of that age, when bluebloods lived in gaudy excess but others were expected to be content in their "appointed stations." Through the whim of his adored monarch, narrator Robert Merivel becomes veterinarian to the Royal Dogs, unofficial Fool, and "paid cuckold," when he marries the King's mistress, Celia Clemence, on condition that he himself will never fall in love with her. Having unwittingly succumbed to that forbidden emotion, Merivel is cast off by both wife and King, and must join his dour Quaker friend Pearce working in a lunatic asylum in remote, bleak Whittlesea. Another tragic loss sends him back to plague-ridden London, where his life comes full turn. Merivel embodies the contradictions of his era: though he is vain, frivolous and cynical, he is also a man of sensibility, intelligence and imaginative daring; his wry, witty voice holds the reader absorbed. A thoroughly satisfying read, the complex plot is augmented by acutely observed historical detail, nuanced character development, humor and poignancy.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0340530448
• ISBN 13: 9780340530443
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384