Scan barcode
A review by jmatkinson1
Rustication by Charles Palliser
5.0
Richard Shenstone has been sent down in disgrace from Cambridge. He has been rusticated after his friend died, he was found to owe a lot of money and his opium habit became out of control. His father has recently died and his mother and sister have moved from Thurchester to a lonely house on the sea marsh. The house is full of secrets and, as Richard fights his addiction, strange things start to happen in the area - animals are being maimed and threatening letters are being sent. Is Richard the perpetrator or is he being set up to be an innocent dupe?
Palsied is a superb novelist with a real talent for creating Victorian gothic novels and this is no exception. I loved The Quincunx and look forward to the next in line. Each character has secrets and, in Shenstone, Palliser has created a hero whom it is hard to love but who one ends up willing to see through the miasma. The plot is clever and ultimately very sad - no one is innocent. The sense of time and place are fabulous and the little devices Palliser uses, such as the novelist being a character himself as narrator, are spot on. This is an accomplished and impressive novel and joins a cadre of work of the highest level.
Palsied is a superb novelist with a real talent for creating Victorian gothic novels and this is no exception. I loved The Quincunx and look forward to the next in line. Each character has secrets and, in Shenstone, Palliser has created a hero whom it is hard to love but who one ends up willing to see through the miasma. The plot is clever and ultimately very sad - no one is innocent. The sense of time and place are fabulous and the little devices Palliser uses, such as the novelist being a character himself as narrator, are spot on. This is an accomplished and impressive novel and joins a cadre of work of the highest level.