- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Mammoth; New edition edition (1 Jan 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749745819
- ISBN-13: 978-0749745813
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.6 x 2.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,168,137 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
Trust Leon Garfield, always literate in 18th-century London, to transform offbeat period material into an engrossing read. Here he introduces a string of apprentices in separate chapters, assigns them authentic occupations and identities, and just perceptibly interlocks their stories through several months of fictional time. Thus Possul, the lamplighter's linkboy, walks by most of the characters after his opening chapter; the midwife and the mirror-frame carver both stop in the mirror-maker's house; and virtually all have some contact, passing or more lasting, with the Noades funeral, And the stories themselves have integrity. The undertaker's daughter, somewhat morbidly attached to a buried corpse, gets a living reprieve from a rival undertaker's romantic apprentice. And two pawn-broker's assistants in cahoots, find their petty thievery foiled - an incident with its own redeeming features. Subtle class distinctions and the daily grime emerge as well as religious and political items: as the Jewish clockmaker's family celebrates Passover, an uninvited guest appears at the door opened for Elijah, and the printer's apprentice has the wrong stock burned to please an author's appealing daughter. Clever - an assemblage of Dickensian names (Moss, Blister, Bunting, Gully) and distinct faces. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
Life for 18th-century London apprentices was often hard, but their hopes and dreams are the stuff of these stories. From chilly October, through Christmas, Valentine's Day, May Day and midsummer, a story for each month is included in this book.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I often like browsing in bookshops to find good books, and I recently haven't found a book better than this one. It's a selection of short stories set in 18th century London, telling the stories of (as you may have guessed) different apprentices. I thought the stories were really unique and well written. They give different aspects of the working classes of Victorian society, rather than the general gloom written by others,such as Charles Dickens (this is not supposed to be a sacrilege, I am not disputing the fact that he was a very good writer). The stories give an insight into the characters' lives, but in a subtle and almost indifferent way, at the same time conveying the atmosphere and emotions. I would recommend this book to anyone, but especially people of my age (13,going on 14),and those who like short stories.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
why's it out of print???
17 Feb 2002
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This is probably one of the best books I've ever read. Novels. It's very simple, from the speech to the layout, but it's dealt with so beautifully that even the macabre side isn't disturbing.
Set in the sometimes-seamy underworld of the 18th century, it starts with an odd-job boy who becomes apprenticed to a lamplighter after doing the man a favour. Then, as the year goes by, it's woven in with the tales of eleven other apprentices. From the undertaker's daughter on Valentine's Day to the wig maker's assistant charming girls for their hair, there are tales of love, either lost or won, of misery, or just the joy of being alive.
Like, when I like a book, it's hard to write about it lucidly, but please believe me -it's wonderful.
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