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Kept: A Victorian Mystery
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Review
"A gripping tale, crafted with passion and intelligence, and an honorable addendum to the golden age of the English novel."--Simon Baker, New Statesman
Saturday Guardian
'An ingenious tale of madness, murder and deception.'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I quite like DJ Taylor as an essayist and TV talking head, and I love Victorian mysteries, so when I came across this I reckoned it couldn't go wrong. It was a terrible let-down. In spite of the title there is not really any mystery at all, and despite the story being told from a dizzying variety of multiple viewpoints not much in the way of plot when you get down to it - and of the minor puzzles there are, several are simply not explained by the end. The climax is given away on the first page and not even fleshed out later.
The book is padded out with far too many scenes of characters schlepping around London on irrelevant or uninteresting errands, and vignettes that tell us things we already know. While there's no lack of Victoriana, and every locale is duly described as being miserable and dreary-looking, there is a deficiency of atmosphere. It is more an intellectual exercise in pastiche than a living novel and far too down-to-earth and mundane: a great detective who has been built-up offstage turns out when he finally arrives to be incredibly bland, and is enabled to unravel the case by a stroke of luck, of which the narrator slyly remarks that it would be tutted at in a work of fiction - well, yes. At another point the (unnamed but intrusive) narrator wryly notes the tendency of the novelists of the period to romanticise London types into loveable comic characters - 'London has been discovered'. One smiles, but the book would have benefited from a 'character' or so of its own.
In fact the book comes to seem like some pointless post-modern exercise in deflating the genre and thwarting the reader's expectations. A character one anticipates is going to be become the hero does very little even to advance the story. We are treated to an interminable chapter describing another character traipsing through the Canadian wilderness in some peril of his life - one has stopped expecting a hero by this point but assumes he must at least be vital to the plot. But no, he is promptly abandoned, re-appears when everything is wrapped up, does nothing and goes away again. A mistake by a keycutter hampers a villain's scheme, and renders the preceding ten pages spent obtaining the keys pointless. At times it is like that kind of arthouse fiction that deals in the things that happen in the interstices between the scenes of a normal story, the things that are usually and rightly kept offstage.
Wilkie Collins is a notable absence from the list of Victorian authors Taylor acknowledges as an inspiration in an afterword (although one of the villains has a pet mouse, perhaps a nod to Count Fosco, if so an entirely inappropriate one as the man in question has none of Fosco's intelligence, menace and charisma) and a touch of Collins is exactly what the novel lacks: a dash of romance, and above all a well-constructed, imaginative and exciting plot.
I imagine Taylor simply wasn't interested in writing the kind of book I had expected from the title. But what he was trying to do eludes me and I found the results unappealing. Even as a collection of slice-of-life Victorian scenes it is too superficial and fragmented to engage. If you're looking for a true homage to the great Victorian mysteries, get hold of 'Fingersmith' or especially 'The Quincunx'.
The book is padded out with far too many scenes of characters schlepping around London on irrelevant or uninteresting errands, and vignettes that tell us things we already know. While there's no lack of Victoriana, and every locale is duly described as being miserable and dreary-looking, there is a deficiency of atmosphere. It is more an intellectual exercise in pastiche than a living novel and far too down-to-earth and mundane: a great detective who has been built-up offstage turns out when he finally arrives to be incredibly bland, and is enabled to unravel the case by a stroke of luck, of which the narrator slyly remarks that it would be tutted at in a work of fiction - well, yes. At another point the (unnamed but intrusive) narrator wryly notes the tendency of the novelists of the period to romanticise London types into loveable comic characters - 'London has been discovered'. One smiles, but the book would have benefited from a 'character' or so of its own.
In fact the book comes to seem like some pointless post-modern exercise in deflating the genre and thwarting the reader's expectations. A character one anticipates is going to be become the hero does very little even to advance the story. We are treated to an interminable chapter describing another character traipsing through the Canadian wilderness in some peril of his life - one has stopped expecting a hero by this point but assumes he must at least be vital to the plot. But no, he is promptly abandoned, re-appears when everything is wrapped up, does nothing and goes away again. A mistake by a keycutter hampers a villain's scheme, and renders the preceding ten pages spent obtaining the keys pointless. At times it is like that kind of arthouse fiction that deals in the things that happen in the interstices between the scenes of a normal story, the things that are usually and rightly kept offstage.
Wilkie Collins is a notable absence from the list of Victorian authors Taylor acknowledges as an inspiration in an afterword (although one of the villains has a pet mouse, perhaps a nod to Count Fosco, if so an entirely inappropriate one as the man in question has none of Fosco's intelligence, menace and charisma) and a touch of Collins is exactly what the novel lacks: a dash of romance, and above all a well-constructed, imaginative and exciting plot.
I imagine Taylor simply wasn't interested in writing the kind of book I had expected from the title. But what he was trying to do eludes me and I found the results unappealing. Even as a collection of slice-of-life Victorian scenes it is too superficial and fragmented to engage. If you're looking for a true homage to the great Victorian mysteries, get hold of 'Fingersmith' or especially 'The Quincunx'.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's not often I get to the end of a book and really have absolutely no idea what was going on. The plot, such as it was, was so overlayered with artful description and 'trenchant' characterisation that it was virtually obscured. This book, in its homage to great Victorian literature, seemed to adopt some of its very worst vices - convoluted sentences, pretentious comparisons, tangential descriptions of character - with none of its virtues, eg. a ripping good yarn.
It was clever, yes, in that show-offy, verbose way that Victorian writers could be clever, but it was also painfully dull. I have absolutely no idea why I persevered with it.
It was clever, yes, in that show-offy, verbose way that Victorian writers could be clever, but it was also painfully dull. I have absolutely no idea why I persevered with it.
27 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It is difficult to know where to start in reviewing this book, so many and varied are its qualities. First of all, the book teems with richly-painted, unforgettable characters from the lowest reaches to the very highest of Victorian society: billbrokers, parlourmaids, curates, noblemen, attorneys and whatnot, all of them described with often the most telling details.
Then there's the plot: the very first page of the book by way of newspaper obituaries reveals that 2 people will die (Henry Ireland and James Dixey), but although the next chapter goes back to a time when both are still alive this does not in the least diminish the tension built page after page. On the contrary, chapter after chapter you eagerly read on to find out how they will meet their end.
Next, I should mention the fascinating mix of literary techniques and points of view D.J. Taylor uses: excerpts from diaries, third-and first-person narrative, at times an (almost) omniscient author, it's all there and used to very good effect.
Last but not least, it's been quite a while since I came across a novel so rich and colourful in its use of the English language. Consider this: "a tall man, elderly but apparently vigorous, in a suit of black with a white stock tied around his throat and bony hands that, resting curiously on the desk before him, looked as if they might have concerns of their own and be about to go scuttling off across the veneer in defiance of their owner's wishes.". There's close to 500 pages of the same stuff waiting for you behind the cover of 'Kept', what's keeping you?
Then there's the plot: the very first page of the book by way of newspaper obituaries reveals that 2 people will die (Henry Ireland and James Dixey), but although the next chapter goes back to a time when both are still alive this does not in the least diminish the tension built page after page. On the contrary, chapter after chapter you eagerly read on to find out how they will meet their end.
Next, I should mention the fascinating mix of literary techniques and points of view D.J. Taylor uses: excerpts from diaries, third-and first-person narrative, at times an (almost) omniscient author, it's all there and used to very good effect.
Last but not least, it's been quite a while since I came across a novel so rich and colourful in its use of the English language. Consider this: "a tall man, elderly but apparently vigorous, in a suit of black with a white stock tied around his throat and bony hands that, resting curiously on the desk before him, looked as if they might have concerns of their own and be about to go scuttling off across the veneer in defiance of their owner's wishes.". There's close to 500 pages of the same stuff waiting for you behind the cover of 'Kept', what's keeping you?
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Absorbing journey that needed to be a little more focussed
This was exactly the sort of book I really enjoy - 'in the style of' those old Victorian master novelists, Dickens, Collins, Thackeray, by a writer making more than a few nods to... Read more
Published on 30 Nov 2009 by Lady Fancifull
Don't make me read this again, please.
What was all the fuss about? This was badly written, drawn out and unlikable from the start. I would not even want to give this book away.
Published on 28 May 2009 by Z. Nichols
You can keep Kept
This is another one of those pastiche Victorian novels that are in vogue at the moment. Whilst 'Kept' might be set in Victorian times, it adopts the style and mannerisms of a 20th... Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2008 by Mr. T. Harvey
....a ponderous and pedestrian read.
A rather ponderous and pedestrian read that does not bear a scratch on its Victorian antecedents. It also compares unfavourably with the work of other contempory writers of... Read more
Published on 6 May 2008 by A Meah
Like pulling teeth
It is not often that I start reading a book and don't finish it but I came close with this one. Only a few chapters really held my interest but the next chapters did not follow on... Read more
Published on 5 Nov 2007 by Ms. Jl Green
This Kept me gripped
This really is a fantastic book and I urge you to read it! The plot has lots of different strands including a `madwoman' in an attic, a train robbery, 2 murders, bird egg stealing,... Read more
Published on 17 July 2007 by Donna Mcmanus
Dickens without the boring bits
Excellent, atmospheric novel. As compelling as it is authentic. A must for fans of Dickens/Wilkie Collins who only wish that sometimes those (still great) authors could say... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2007 by Gary J. Clark
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