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jemima_reads's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
hadeanstars's review against another edition
4.0
Very engaging, and a thoroughly odd central character, a man with almost zero masculine traits whose journey is by parts calamitous, hilarious and tragic. At first I found Merivel to be somehow unwholesome, but eventually, his humanity wins through. He is entirely Venusian, with a liberal sprinkling of Jove and struggle to contend with the Saturnine elements of his life, until he is left with no other option. It seems an apt cautionary tale for us all, and in the end his big-heartedness redeems him. Much of the novel is set in my 'home' environs of Norfolk, so I found the author's sympathy with the timeless elements of that fair county, most agreeable.
I shall be reading the sequel.
I shall be reading the sequel.
msjaneod's review against another edition
4.0
Really good. Wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. Heard Tremain on Guardian Books podcast and thought I would give it a go. incredible depiction of the time of the Stuarts and Merivel is a great character
jengreenwood's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
ruthrebecca's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
This is an essentially long character study set in the 1660s, which feels so alive and real.
Merivel is not a perfect man at all, in fact, if I met him in person I don't think I'd like him. But the gaudy Merivel of Bidnold, the tacky-rifhteous Robert of Whittlesea, and the contemplative physician Robert Merivel of London were all so distinct yet were clearly the same man. A master class in developing a character.
The settings were so well described they felt luscious and within reach. Every detail fit to the time period but didn't feel like a history lesson. Other characters, of which they were many, felt like real people and we as readers know that we only see a small sniper of who they are through Merivel's POV.
There's the theme of perspective in this book. The Indian Nightingale is actually a blackbird - but does it matter if their song is beautiful and their fake identity brings happiness? Rosie Pierpoint is a mistress he is devoted to for years, who is in the business of prostitution and that's how she makes her money - but does it matter if his feelings for her are under false pretencies but are nonetheless real? William Harvey is the physician who is Pearce's great inspiration and who discovered blood circulation - yet in the novel William Harvey is the name given to the building for the most mentally unwell people, who are not allowed to 'circulate' among others or take part in the group dancing.
This book also centers the bromance between Merivel and the king. The King sees the pompous Merivel and sends him away to "find himself to be useful" while reminding him "Do not sleep". And so the quest of being useful is the crux of this novel, I think the blurb is actually quite misleading. Falling for the King's mistress is the inciting incident but not the quest.
The theme of sleeping comes up right at the end of the novel, and Merivel dreams and longs for the past. Especially to return to Bidnold. The ending is confusing, is it a dream or real? He meets the king at Bidnold, yet he was doing to thing the king forbade, 'sleeping' and yearning for old luxuries. The ending, I'm unsure if I got the point.
Great experience with the audiobook, the narrator is fantastic.
Merivel is not a perfect man at all, in fact, if I met him in person I don't think I'd like him. But the gaudy Merivel of Bidnold, the tacky-rifhteous Robert of Whittlesea, and the contemplative physician Robert Merivel of London were all so distinct yet were clearly the same man. A master class in developing a character.
The settings were so well described they felt luscious and within reach. Every detail fit to the time period but didn't feel like a history lesson. Other characters, of which they were many, felt like real people and we as readers know that we only see a small sniper of who they are through Merivel's POV.
There's the theme of perspective in this book. The Indian Nightingale is actually a blackbird - but does it matter if their song is beautiful and their fake identity brings happiness? Rosie Pierpoint is a mistress he is devoted to for years, who is in the business of prostitution and that's how she makes her money - but does it matter if his feelings for her are under false pretencies but are nonetheless real? William Harvey is the physician who is Pearce's great inspiration and who discovered blood circulation - yet in the novel William Harvey is the name given to the building for the most mentally unwell people, who are not allowed to 'circulate' among others or take part in the group dancing.
This book also centers the bromance between Merivel and the king. The King sees the pompous Merivel and sends him away to "find himself to be useful" while reminding him "Do not sleep". And so the quest of being useful is the crux of this novel, I think the blurb is actually quite misleading. Falling for the King's mistress is the inciting incident but not the quest.
The theme of sleeping comes up right at the end of the novel, and Merivel dreams and longs for the past. Especially to return to Bidnold. The ending is confusing, is it a dream or real? He meets the king at Bidnold, yet he was doing to thing the king forbade, 'sleeping' and yearning for old luxuries. The ending, I'm unsure if I got the point.
Great experience with the audiobook, the narrator is fantastic.
melolivia17's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
tomleetang's review against another edition
3.0
A ballsy, bawdy novel about the licentiousness of the Restoration and the reaction against it. Our hero, Robert Merivel, engages in a series of picaresque adventures, as he works towards humanism and away from purely sensual gratification - often and repeatedly failing due to an inability to control his trouser snake.
He's not the only one to try and change his wicked ways, but under the auspices of King Charles II - who is presented as a model of monarchy at its most louche and capricious - the characters seem to be unable to break the cycle, instead taking on the attributes of their thoughtless king, who exercises an irresitable pull on his subjects.
Merivel, however, is among the most rephensible. At one point, he has sexual relations with a mentally ill woman under his care. Of course, a reader should be careful not to judge the characters in historical fiction solely on the morals of their own time, but it still makes for a pretty repulsive act.
Merivel provides an amusing, jocular narration, but by the end of the novel he resembles that hopeless friend who once upon a time we rooted for, but have eventually decided - somewhat sadly - that they're a lost cause. The same could be said for Restoration as a whole.
He's not the only one to try and change his wicked ways, but under the auspices of King Charles II - who is presented as a model of monarchy at its most louche and capricious - the characters seem to be unable to break the cycle, instead taking on the attributes of their thoughtless king, who exercises an irresitable pull on his subjects.
Merivel, however, is among the most rephensible. At one point, he has sexual relations with a mentally ill woman under his care. Of course, a reader should be careful not to judge the characters in historical fiction solely on the morals of their own time, but it still makes for a pretty repulsive act.
Merivel provides an amusing, jocular narration, but by the end of the novel he resembles that hopeless friend who once upon a time we rooted for, but have eventually decided - somewhat sadly - that they're a lost cause. The same could be said for Restoration as a whole.
coronaurora's review against another edition
4.0
With Restoration, Tremain has unlocked the secrets to write enduring historical fiction. All the deadweight of imbibing fictional characters movements and language with the period's nuances besides convincingly making them engage with landscapes and humanity three centuries old is accomplished masterfully by duplicating the written cadences and vocabulary of the famous diarists and commentators of the era. If there was an anachronism, it completely passed me as I galloped through this addictive and funny adventure which for the most part was like trying plate after plate of amuse bouches.
She smartly enrols her fictional character, Merivel, on a professional path of a physician, that inevitably brings him close to the humanity around him, and then an extra fold is added to his personality: he is a Reluctant physician, who serendipitously finds himself in the King's court and quickly succumbs to the decadence and debauchery that comes from the monarch's benefaction. The persisting wrinkle of his reluctance to "his calling" takes him on a journey of self-realisation with the kaleidoscope of the late 17th century Britain as an enchanting backdrop. With the farting and bodice-ripping Merivel in tow, you get to live and breathe through most of the century's social mores first hand: from the incredulous particulars of a monarch's "sponsorships" to the casual licentiousness at the parties of the "gentry" to the speech of the bargemen on the Thames and the lives of washerwomen inn-owners and finally to the soul-crushing hubbub of the teeming poor and mad in the bedlams and workhouses.
A growing-up yarn is the last thing I expected from a period piece, and yet here it is in all its glory, fall and rise from the ashes. Tremain's masterstroke is writing this in first person as Merivel and imbibing him with all the contradictions and fallibilities of a living, breathing person. Outwardly crude, mediocre, and a slave of his appetites; inwardly self-aware, self-mocking, witty, modest, curious and generous all at once, Merivel makes for an exquisite pair of eyes to observe the world around him. When you finally find him reaching that summit of self-realisation, piece by piece channelling the humane, courageous side of his personality, Tremain is busy choreographing this precise moment with his benefactor's restoration of the belief in him; a benefactor who he held in singular, earnest high esteem despite all the world's misgivings and the said benefactor's dubious treatment of Merivel, and it made for a well-earned, cockle-warming feel good climax.
Part of the book's triumph is that Tremain draws all the characters around Merivel with as much colour and individual spectacle as each of Merivel's impulses. The enigmatic, recently restored King who is revealled to be a discerning patron stands out as much as the Quaker best friend who doubles up as a searing critic to Merivel's follies to the wife-figure he aches to possess but cannot. I'll remember them all, and will be re-reading Restoration for the sheer humour with which Merivel receives all the insults and how very little comes in the way of him telling us his "response" to the world and people around him. That is after I have dipped some more into his antics in Tremain's sequel. She has created a bit of a small literary legend with Merivel.
She smartly enrols her fictional character, Merivel, on a professional path of a physician, that inevitably brings him close to the humanity around him, and then an extra fold is added to his personality: he is a Reluctant physician, who serendipitously finds himself in the King's court and quickly succumbs to the decadence and debauchery that comes from the monarch's benefaction. The persisting wrinkle of his reluctance to "his calling" takes him on a journey of self-realisation with the kaleidoscope of the late 17th century Britain as an enchanting backdrop. With the farting and bodice-ripping Merivel in tow, you get to live and breathe through most of the century's social mores first hand: from the incredulous particulars of a monarch's "sponsorships" to the casual licentiousness at the parties of the "gentry" to the speech of the bargemen on the Thames and the lives of washerwomen inn-owners and finally to the soul-crushing hubbub of the teeming poor and mad in the bedlams and workhouses.
A growing-up yarn is the last thing I expected from a period piece, and yet here it is in all its glory, fall and rise from the ashes. Tremain's masterstroke is writing this in first person as Merivel and imbibing him with all the contradictions and fallibilities of a living, breathing person. Outwardly crude, mediocre, and a slave of his appetites; inwardly self-aware, self-mocking, witty, modest, curious and generous all at once, Merivel makes for an exquisite pair of eyes to observe the world around him. When you finally find him reaching that summit of self-realisation, piece by piece channelling the humane, courageous side of his personality, Tremain is busy choreographing this precise moment with his benefactor's restoration of the belief in him; a benefactor who he held in singular, earnest high esteem despite all the world's misgivings and the said benefactor's dubious treatment of Merivel, and it made for a well-earned, cockle-warming feel good climax.
Part of the book's triumph is that Tremain draws all the characters around Merivel with as much colour and individual spectacle as each of Merivel's impulses. The enigmatic, recently restored King who is revealled to be a discerning patron stands out as much as the Quaker best friend who doubles up as a searing critic to Merivel's follies to the wife-figure he aches to possess but cannot. I'll remember them all, and will be re-reading Restoration for the sheer humour with which Merivel receives all the insults and how very little comes in the way of him telling us his "response" to the world and people around him. That is after I have dipped some more into his antics in Tremain's sequel. She has created a bit of a small literary legend with Merivel.
evgeorge's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0