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Notes on a Scandal (Paperback)

by Zoë Heller (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.84 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Notes on a Scandal + Everything You Know + The Believers
Price For All Three: £14.22

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  • This item: Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller

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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin; New Ed edition (4 Mar 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0141012250
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141012254
  • Product Dimensions: 19.4 x 12.8 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 27,226 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #2 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > H > Heller, Zoe

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review
Zoe Heller juggles journalism and novel-writing successfully in Notes on a Scandal and manages to say something interesting and complex about moral panics and the people who get caught up in them.

Pottery teacher Sheba lets herself be talked into an affair with 15-year-old pupil Connolly; part of what is admirable about this novel is that there is no real attempt to extenuate this--it's wrong and she knows this from the start, enough to lie to herself and others about it. It's an abuse of her very limited power--he is one of the few of her pupils interested in art, not interested in perpetually disrupting her lessons.

Sheba is not alone in abusing power, though, and Heller forces us to confront this unpleasant truth about the moralising, managerial headmaster, the husband freed by Sheba's action to seduce his own very slightly older students, and the relatives who never liked her much and can now disown her. Above all, she devotes most of the novel to Barbara, the older colleague who becomes Sheba's confidante and slowly manipulates the situation to make Sheba entirely dependent on her. This is a brilliantly gloomy study in obsession--and the obsession in question is not actually Sheba's with her underage lover. --Roz Kaveney --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
When the new teacher first arrives, Barbara immediately senses that this woman will be different from the rest of her staff-room colleagues. But Barbara is not the only one to feel that Sheba is special, and before too long Sheba is involved in an illicit affair with a pupil. Barbara finds the relationship abhorrent, of course, but she is the only adult in whom Sheba can properly confide. So when the liaison is found out and Sheba's life falls apart, Barbara is there...

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Customer Reviews

87 Reviews
5 star:
 (37)
4 star:
 (28)
3 star:
 (13)
2 star:
 (7)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (87 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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58 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars single white female, 5 April 2004
By monlibu "monlibu" (london) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
Notes on a scandal is a clever book. Be ready for something slightly different that will drag you in, slowly become addictive and then race you along on a rollercoaster ride of obsession, lust and misplaced loyalty.

Ostensibly it's a novel about a rookie pottery class schoolteacher Sheba joining a north London comprehensive with high ideals but no sense of distance or discipline to her pupils. With a family life of older husband, troublesome teenage daughter and down's syndrome son, she's lost a little of the spark and romance in her life. What once independence was, is left clinging to her hippy dress sense and cycling to work. Sheba needs to make a difference. And so she is easily swayed by an illiterate pupil with a modicum of artist desire and an overwhelming crush on Miss.

But no, this is not what Notes on a scandal is all about. Narrated by Barbara, Sheba's 60 year old teacher colleague, this is a sly diary peek into Barbara's take on the affair and Barbara's world. A disturbing one dimensional slant on Sheba's story and ultimately Barbara's lonely spinstered life.

Notes on a scandal is an exceptional book for the detail and insight into Barbara, who at first, we think to trust and then learn to either despise or feel wholly sad for her prejudiced, narrow and emotionless existence. Barbara craves comfort and love, she needs people to rely on her, she manipulates because she is emotionally bereft. This is what makes the novel so unerringly clever and devious, for we really cannot believe all we are reading about Sheba's plight from Barbara's barbarous interpretation.

Notes on a scandal is witty, cunningly observational about relationships and a stark insight into a warped mind. A great read that'll stay with you for some time. Notes on a scandal II - the Sheba story, would be even more enticing.

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58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars I'm a bloke and I liked it, 16 Sep 2004
By OEJ (England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)      
I ordered this book on the basis of its award nomination, having no idea of its subject matter. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and it won't be for those who like murder mysteries or thrillers - but I liked it from the beginning and by the end, I loved it. Zoe Heller has a real talent for character development, and manages to portray the self-denied loneliness of a sixty-something spinster/schoolteacher in a sensitive and non-condescending manner yet with a good deal of tragic humour as well. I must have completed two-thirds of the book before I realised that the central character wasn't the woman at the heart of the scandal, but her note-maker and grateful friend who tells the story itself. The personalities of both women are artfully and painstakingly developed, along with their working colleagues and families, and for this reason I strongly recommend Notes on a Scandal as an education for other writers on how to tell a story with characters who readers can totally believe in. An astute observation on the trials and tribulations of the lonely, this book deserves its prize nomination and gets my strong recommendation.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A great thriller on unspeakable obsession, 22 Sep 2004
By Stephen Newton "www.stephennewton.com" (Manchester, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
More holiday reading, this time in the form of Zoë Heller's Man Booker (2003) nominated Notes on a Scandal. And without slighting the book (it's a great read) I'm a little surprised it got that nomination as it's not that groundbreaking in a literary sense; erring more on the side of quality thriller.

What does make Notes on a Scandal innovative is telling the story in first person, where that person is not the true protagonist. Sheba, the female teacher who's had an affair with a pupil should be the story, but she's too messed up to string a sentence together. So it's left to Barbara, the lonely, possessive, spinster colleague and friend to tell a story of which she's not really a part, from a perspective that places her at the centre of everything. So rather than paint a (predictable?) picture of Sheba's lust and corruption, we get the repression that somehow fuels Barbara's own (to her unspeakable) obsession with Sheba.

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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
I read this book not knowing what to expect and I just loved it. I couldn't put it down. The writing and characterisations are superb. Highly recommended
Published 3 months ago by Yorkshire Rose

5.0 out of 5 stars So well written it takes a while to realise who the real central character is.
The subject matter may put some people off, but that's not what this book is really about. After you've read it once, go back and read it again; you'll see Barbara for who she... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bookworm168

4.0 out of 5 stars Mixed motives, confused responses
In Notes On A Scandal, Zoë Heller presents a novel narrated by Barbara Covett, a history teacher in St. George's, a comprehensive school in north London. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Philip Spires

5.0 out of 5 stars Gripping story, great characterisation - all round excellent novel
Fast paced from start to finish. Development of great characters and a fascinating story. Great satire. Read more
Published 13 months ago by UK reader

5.0 out of 5 stars unfortunate observations of an affair
Very readable account of a female teacher's affair with a young male pupil,
as narrated by a lonely obsessive old harridan. Excellent characterisation.
Published 15 months ago by Cole Davis

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writing in which every word counts
Sheba Hart is weak - she's let everyone manipulate her; her older husband, her horrid teenage daughter, her ghastly mother. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Annabel Gaskell

4.0 out of 5 stars Gripping
I thoroughly enjoyed this read though I found it not without fault. Had it gone into a little more detail on a few points like the reaction of the family, brother, husband etc of... Read more
Published 16 months ago by I. S. Thompson

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth a read
This was a fascinating, very readable book with lots to make the reader ponder about. I would have liked to have known more... Read more
Published 16 months ago by Net

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, brilliant, horribly addictive
There are a few books of the great many we read that stand out above all others - for what they say, or of character or the mark they leave on our very being. Read more
Published 18 months ago by J. Potter

4.0 out of 5 stars Disturbing and haunting
This is a great book but it is really quite sinister. I found Barbara's character so fascinating and I'm sure I've met scary people just like her. Read more
Published 18 months ago by love reading

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