- Paperback: 368 pages
- Publisher: William Heinemann Ltd (7 Feb 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0434009989
- ISBN-13: 978-0434009985
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,245,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
Product Description
Doris Lessing
‘I admire this ingenious erudite book, which will enthral all lovers of books and libraries… wonderfully irreverent.’
Review
By the author of A Case of Curiosities, this is a delightfully entertaining novel full of weird things. Alexander Short, the narrator, is a stylish young reference librarian with unusual interests - he is fascinated by enclosed spaces and making lists. Alex is approached in the library where he works by Henry James Jesson III, a bibliophile who asks Alex to work for him in his spare time doing research. His main task is to put together an incomplete cabinet of wonders which details the life of a mysterious 18th-century inventor. A truly funny, genuinely eccentric and imaginative tale.
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
This really isn't bad at all. The intrigue is of libraries and literature, with a running mystery and full of socially-bizarre-but-highly-intelligent freaky people. Although the story itself is good, what made the book for me was that a lot of the material - how libraries work, or the parallels with Boswell and Samuel Johnson - are actually real, not fictional and you finish the book having actually learnt something. And with a huge sense of relief that you are not quite as bizarre/idiosyncratic as the protagonists.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Authors love libraries, they can fill all of their senses with the sheer volume of book and paper. This book is a well crafted and constructed gentle detective story. You are led through an ambling tale of one man's search for an object missing for 200 years on behalf of another to complete his obsessive collection based around the internal workings of a library. Based on the internal workings of a library and it's mystical classification your are taking through a gently circular course. The story seems more suited to a short story but makes a good read.
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
