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England's Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia
 
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England's Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia (Hardcover)

by Philip Hoare (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
Price: £25.00 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 560 pages
  • Publisher: Fourth Estate Ltd (21 Feb 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0007159102
  • ISBN-13: 978-0007159109
  • Product Dimensions: 23.8 x 15.8 x 4.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 744,657 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #72 in  Books > Science & Nature > Earth Sciences & Geography > Geography > Physical > Forests & Rainforests
    #74 in  Books > Science & Nature > Biological Sciences > Animal Sciences > Habitats > Rainforest

Product Description

Review

Praise for SPIKE ISLAND 'Spike Island is a book that has everything a passionate reader could possibly want -- a subject that far transcends the trivial pursuits of contemporary writing, concerns both public and private, astonishing details, stylistic precision, a unique sense of time and place, and a great depth of vision.' W.G.SEBALD Sunday Telegraph Books of the Year 'A psychological study of horror and spiritual displacement: human vulnerability pitted against the institutional administration of violence ! Philip Hoare's deeply personal foray into the past is a tour-de-force.' Michael Bracewell, Independent on Sunday 'Spike Island -- elaborate, riveting, touching, strangely romantic -- is itself a gothic tale ! few could combine such rigorous scholarly accuracy with Hoare's narrative flair.' Observer 'Gruesome, startling, grainily authentic, as if Hoare were inching his way through history's dark wood with a hand-held camera, reporting what he sees in close-miked voiceover. Spike Island comes as near as it is possible to get to a scholarly equivalent of The Blair Witch Project.' Hilary Spurling, Daily Telegraph


Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday

‘Philip Hoare has written of Mary Ann Girling with such awe and respect'

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Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (2)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
25 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Bizarre Subject - Bizarre Result, 11 Mar 2005
By A Customer
The synopsis is fascinating, romantic and magnetic. The story of Mary Ann Girling and her bizarre sect begs to be captured in a well-crafted history. The author steps forward - in the shape of Philip Hoare - and spends five years researching these Victorian goings-on in dusty libraries and local collections. He sets to work on his PC and writes the book that is needed. But what a bizarre result! The text is padded-out with multitudinous cul-de-sacs - veritable brain-dumps of boring tripe - that make this book twice as long as it should have been. His self-indulgent style almost forgets the reader is present and we are subjected to a whos-who of Victorian names and connections that befuddles the brain and made me give up, dis-spirited, at Part III. But in the absence of any other Girlingite history, the book is grudgingly recommended - be prepared for a very long haul!
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7 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars numinous beauty, 18 Nov 2006
By Larcombe Associates "Rosalind Trevelyn" (Tavistock, Devon) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This extraordinary, evanescent account of utopian sects during the nineteeth-century is a tour de force. It is highly evocative of the work of W.G. Sebald - who has praised Hoare's work - and achieves something beyond history, travelogue, or memory. The story of Mary Ann Girling and the New Forest Shakers is almost unbelievable, but Hoare's impeccable research anchors his narrative in text which veers between fact and incredible fiction.

Highly recommended
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5 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars I doubt if I'll read anything better this year, 13 April 2007
By Pat Moore (London) - See all my reviews
I doubt if I'll read anything better this year. The first thing to say is how beautifully Philip Hoare writes; what a pleasure to read such clear and lovely English. But besides this, what really makes this book so special is the seamless way that the author weaves together his several narratives and I was very moved by his linking of a personal history to this extraordinary period. Strongly recommended.
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