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The Irresistible Inheritance Of Wilberforce: A Novel in Four Vintages
 
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The Irresistible Inheritance Of Wilberforce: A Novel in Four Vintages (Hardcover)

by Paul Torday (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
RRP: £12.99
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Frequently Bought Together

The Irresistible Inheritance Of Wilberforce: A Novel in Four Vintages + The Girl On The Landing + Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
Total RRP: £28.97
Price For All Three: £18.88

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (7 Feb 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0297851594
  • ISBN-13: 978-0297851592
  • Product Dimensions: 20.2 x 13.8 x 3.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 265,844 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Product Description

Review

'Remarkably, given the bleakness of both subject and hero, it is an incredibly good read.' (Marianne MacDonald DAILY TELEGRAPH )

'What makes us want to find out about Wilberforce is Torday's wonderful prose - the same simple, clear writing that made Salmon Fishing so readable.' (Susan Elderkin FINANCIAL TIMES )

'he has a good feeling for character and a sly sense of humour' (David Robson SUNDAY TELEGRAPH )

"a well-told tale.. Torday wryly observes Wilberforce's descent" (Paul Dunn THE TIMES )

"grows more and more poignant as the novel progresses.. satisfyingly full-bodied and slips down a treat" (Peter Parker SUNDAY TIMES )

"marks him out as a writer of serious promise, whose achievements in this second novel hint at bigger, better works to come." (Fiona McCann IRISH TIMES )

"Torday tells ths story in reverse, a familiar narrative device used effectively here" (Shyamantha Asokan THE BIG ISSUE )

"a really good book by a really talented writer" (A BOOK A WEEK BLOGSPOT )

"the pages practically turn themselves and the closing lines of the book, after such a heady brew, are so deliciously sobering" (JOHN SELF ASYLUM BLOGSPOT )

"the whole book is delightfully written.. Paul Torday is a remarkably original novelist" (David Sexton EVENING STANDARD )

"Telling the story back-to-front allows Torday to highlight Wilberforce's self-delusion; he's that familiar figure, the alcoholic who pretends that he's merely a connoissuer" (Josh Lacey GUARDIAN )

"exceptionally accomplished.. second novels are notoriously difficult to pull off but Torday has managed a near masterpiece" (Virginia Blackburn DAILY EXPRESS )

"Torday's confidence in his story's power to command attention is not mispaced.. Wilberforce is well worth sampling" (Nicola Smyth INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY )

You Really Must Read: "beguiling novel by the author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, about a wine snob's bad alcoholic manners" (SUNDAY TIMES )

"slips down a treat" (THE WEEK )

Four stars - a "subtly comic novel" (Claire Allfree METRO )

"another quirky offering from a true original" (Iain Finlayson SAGA )

"a heart-wrenching tale of alcoholism and a lonely man's search for identity.. a mesmerising page-turner" (Anthony Gardner Mail on Sunday )

"(the plot) provides Torday with copious opportunities for comedy, which he readily exploits. But there is a serious undertone" (Nina Kelly Time Out )

Susan Elderkin, FINANCIAL TIMES

'What makes us want to find out about Wilberforce is Torday's wonderful prose - the same simple, clear writing that made Salmon Fishing so readable.'

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The Irresistible Inheritance Of Wilberforce: A Novel in Four Vintages
71% buy the item featured on this page:
The Irresistible Inheritance Of Wilberforce: A Novel in Four Vintages 3.9 out of 5 stars (22)
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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (8)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolute tour de force, 18 Feb 2008
A tragedy, told backwards. One reviewer compained that since we know how Wilberforce ends up from the start, it loses dramatic tension: no it doesn't. The tension comes from not how he ends up, but how he got there. Really excellent read.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Highly readable entertainment, 2 Oct 2008
In 2006, Wilberforce is an alcoholic close to killing himself through his prolific wine consumption of four or five bottles a day. Regularly barred from the high-end restaurants he visits in search of the most exclusive and expensive vintages, Wilberforce does not appreciate that he is addicted; he views himself as a wine connoisseur, even when he wakes up in hospital from an alcohol-induced coma. From this engaging beginning, Paul Torday takes the reader back to three previous years of Wilberforce's life, in which we see the journey that transformed him from a young, successful businessman to a walking disaster area.

There are some darkly humorous moments in the novel, but for the most part, this is downbeat stuff. Whilst it is highly readable, a few things in the book don't quite convince; for example, the voice of Wilberforce as a man in his mid- to late thirties - even allowing for his decline and world-weariness, it's difficult to believe in the age Torday has given him. The fact that Wilberforce has a mystery family background and parentage, and that his first name is kept secret for much of the book, are curious asides that do little to add any sense of suspense or intrigue to what is essentially a tale of a messed-up life.

There are other problems. We don't get to know the Catherine character at all (although perhaps this is deliberate; she does not seem to have left an impression on Wilberforce as a truly real person, either). In addition, the book's opening chapters, in which Wilberforce gets inebriated on £3,000-a-bottle Pétrus before being forcibly ejected from his latest choice of eatery, and tries to find a way to obtain wine despite the attentions of a nurse hired in an effort to prevent him doing any more damage to himself, are significantly more entertaining than the couple of hundred pages that follow.

However, I thoroughly enjoyed this. The hints we are given of Wilberforce's mistakes and misapprehensions (and not just regarding his alcoholism) mean that there is a somewhat twisted pleasure to be had out of knowing more than the protagonist does. It is true that there is little plot to speak of, and that in telling the story backwards, Torday loses the book's early riotous momentum, as we spend time with a Wilberforce who is ever more sensible and considered in his behaviour. This was nonetheless, a fun read for me and on that basis it gets four stars, though I could probably pick some more holes in it if I wanted to.

It is Torday's characterisation of Ed Simmonds, a.k.a. Ed Hartlepool (Hartlepool being the title he will inherit) that is Torday's most believable creation in this novel. We don't see much of him, but Ed feels real; he lives and breathes a casually easy existence, something that eludes Wilberforce to the end - or rather, has eluded him from the beginning.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, dark...not funny, 24 Jun 2008
By William (Buckinghamshire) - See all my reviews


Now here's a good example of why it's not a good idea to judge a book by its cover. Its design echoes that of Torday's wonderfully funny and original debut Salmon Fishing In The Yemen; so much so that, had you not read the reviews, you could be forgiven for buying The Irresistible Inheritance of Wilberforce assuming that you had your hands on another hilarious and rather touching novel. Well, this isn't very touching and it's certainly not funny.
In fact, it's a relatively dark read about the nature and destructive impact of loneliness. It's also, in rather a big way, about an almost sexual obsession with wine. The two themes are knitted together around a plot which is deftly turned inside out and re-ordered.
Torday is quite some writer: stylish and terribly readable. He has produced two such startlingly different novels that you wonder what's coming next.



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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars It'll do, I suppose.
Good start, as others have commented but like the wine, once opened it goes off pretty quickly. I got this on audio download and although I knew it was a "back to front" novel I... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Sully

5.0 out of 5 stars The Irresistible Inheritance Of Wilberforce by Paul Torday
Despite the unlikely title this book is an excellent easy read. It is also very thought provoking. Paul Torday has written something quite differnet to his previous wonderful... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Frances Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars disturbing
I can honestly say that this book disturbed me , but in a good way. I read a lot of books and sometimes I couldn't tell you after what the book was about as it was so 'samey' NOT... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jenny Horrey

4.0 out of 5 stars Very clever story going back in time
This book is written from the "now" into the recent past and this works well. The main character really "developed" in my mind while going back in the years (the whole story goes... Read more
Published 7 months ago by JudithAnn

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining and interesting style
I'd really recommend this book. It's written in an interesting reversely chronological way and as with Salmon Fishing in the Yemen everything falls into place in the end. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Corinna Witt

5.0 out of 5 stars the irresistable inheritance of Wilberforce
Easy reading,quirky interesting style of writing really draws you into both the character and the story.
Published 8 months ago by libby

4.0 out of 5 stars Soaked.
I greatly this book - although I must confess to listening to it, not reading it. I had no problems with the novel being in reverse (it actually isn't, but almost is. Read more
Published 9 months ago by J. Burgess

3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly Corked
A brilliant start, or finish as it is in this case. Unfortunately though my interest waned half way through once the story had been told and I knew what to expect. Read more
Published 11 months ago by fergal moran

4.0 out of 5 stars definately worth a read!
Wine lovers will think again about opening that second bottle of red!

This book introduces the life of the alcoholic with a difference, drowning the reader in the... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Dan Speakman

1.0 out of 5 stars Thoroughly resistable
Wilberforce's inheritance may be irresistable, but I found this book anything but. In fact I lost interest about two-thirds of the way through and gave up... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Chalky

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