⇒ [PDF] Gratis Rustication A Novel Charles Palliser 9780393088724 Books

Rustication A Novel Charles Palliser 9780393088724 Books

Download As PDF : Rustication A Novel Charles Palliser 9780393088724 Books

Rustication A Novel Charles Palliser 9780393088724 Books

So many good novelists have tried their hands at ersatz Victorian sensation novels that it now practically forms its own subgenre. Sarah Waters, Michael Cox, D.J. Taylor, Louis Bayard, Michael Faber and many others have all tried their hand to reproduce the magic of nineteenth-century practitioners of sensation fiction such as Charles Dickens, Ellen Wood, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, J. Meade Falkner and (preeminently) Wilkie Collins. But the popularity for the revival of the form really got going in the late 1980s with Charles Palliser's impossibly long and involving attempt to revivify the form with THE QUINCUNX, which was an international best seller. A decade later, Palliser proved again he could write the most exciting and atmospheric instances of the form with THE UNBURIED, which was even better for being the more tightly contained. After another wait of more than ten years, Palliser again shows his mastery of the form with yet another engaging novel about a mystery surrounding a fascinatingly repulsive community of Victorians.

Almost no one in this novel is made to be likeable even from the start, and none is more contemptible than its protagonist and primary narrator, Richard Shenstone. Richard has been sent down, or rusticated, from Cambridge as the novel starts for unspecified reasons, and has come to stay with his recently bereaved mother and sister in a dirty and decrepit large house they have come to inhabit after the initially unexplained death of Richard's father. Knowing he is expected to comfort them both, Richard instead finds himself engaging in opium smoking, chasing after the housemaid, and making himself obnoxious to the neighbors. It really takes a novelist who knows what he or she is doing to have not just a protagonist but a whole cast of characters as disagreeable as in RUSTICATION, but Palliser knows that he can spin his mystery well enough so that despite the overwhelming selfishness and hypocrisy of Richard's family and his neighbors, readers will be impelled to find out what happens. The resolution to the mystery is not a cheat at all, and works to surprise as well as to satisfy; you don't ever get the sense that Palliser has cheated you by not giving you enough clues or making the stakes important or the resolution worthwhile. Now we just have to wait another yet decade for the next of these!


Tags : Rustication: A Novel [Charles Palliser] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <strong>One of the Best Books of the Year by <em>Publishers Weekly</em><br /><br /> “Endlessly fascinating…one of the strongest novels of the year. ” - <em>School Library Journal</em><br /> “Readers will have as much grisly fun just sorting out the facts as they will solving the mysteries.” -<em>The Daily Beast</em><br /> A vertiginous gothic masterpiece from the best-selling author of <em>The Quincunx</em>.</strong> Charles Palliser’s work has been hailed as “so compulsively absorbing that reality disappears” (<em>New York Times</em>). Since his extraordinary debut,Charles Palliser,Rustication: A Novel,W. W. Norton & Company,0393088723,Gothic,Detective and mystery stories,Historical fiction,Historical fiction.,London (England),London (England);Fiction.,Young men,Young men;Fiction.,English Historical Fiction,FICTION Gothic,FICTION Literary,FICTION Mystery & Detective Historical,Fiction,Fiction - Mystery Detective,FictionGothic,Literature & literary studies,Mystery & Detective - Historical,Romance: Gothic

Rustication A Novel Charles Palliser 9780393088724 Books Reviews

The content of this book will feel familiar for fans of Charles Palliser's earlier writing. It is a 19th century period piece, constructed supposedly of found documents, obsessed with wills and inheritance, and starring a young man unaware of the forces marshaling unjustly against him. Unlike The Quincunx, Palliser's most famous novel, this book is Gothic, rural, and seems to be set in the early 19th century. In the early chapters, as mystery mounts, some supernatural elements are suggested, though Palliser abandons this about a third of the way through.

The book contains few surprises. The book-jacket summary accurately summarizes everything that happens in the first 50% of the book. The ending is pretty clear within another 30 or 40 pages of that. Any joy a reader derives from this book comes from the setting or the characters, not the plot.

And while the setting is competently constructed, we see such a narrow slice of the world that it never takes on life outside of the interactions of our young protagonist. The characters exist only to advance the plot, and as the plot is not very interesting, the characters are not as well.

The book is fun and a relatively quick read, but it's not at the level of Palliser's best work.
Charles Palliser is a master of his craft who writes at a level many others never achieve. His previous books, "The Quincunx" and the equally brilliant, "The Unburied" are examples of this virtuoso author's power with the written word. However, "Rustication" left me just a bit disappointed. While the gorgeous prose of his other books carried on in this one, his characters were uninspiring. Perhaps this was the intent? If so then my review may be misplaced. The protagonist, Richard Shenstone was just unpalatable. I found myself desperately trying to like him, wanting to him to overcome and triumph. Instead I found him weak and well, not likeable enough to care about. Towards the end I found him rather trying. Here again, if this was Mr. Palliser's intent, then he did a fantastic job of directing my feelings about him. By the end of the book I really didn't care about his fate or that of his family. However, that isn't to say this isn't a great book. It is. If you want to see a master at work, Palliser is your man, but I would suggest you start out with the above mentioned books before reading this one. I hope to see more novels come from his imagination. This book wasn't one of my faves, but I will always purchase anything he writes, he's just that good......
I was intrigued by the synopsis of this book and the comparison to an Austen/Poe hybrid. It started out interestingly enough but it just didn't go anywhere. The characters were not well developed and I found I didn't care about any of them. The language in the anonymous letters were extremely off-putting and just didn't fit with the style of the story. I kept waiting for a big reveal and that "ah ha moment," but it never came. 65% of the way through I got so bored I jus skipped to the last 20 or so pages. I'm glad I did. It was all wrapped up there and I didn't have to slog through the tediousness of reading the entire book. I'm still a bit confused by what genre this book fits into. I can't believe it was recommended to book clubs! Why?
This story is told through the journal of Richard Shenstone. Unlike many novels written from the point of view of upper middle class Britains, his family is mean and nasty to one another. Richard returned in disgrace from Cambridge to learn that his father died, but his mother didn't tell him until after the funeral.

If the people seem petty and stuck up as the days go on, they become increasingly awful. But, like a train wreck, we can't look away.

When you are finally convinced that Richard has a Dr. Hyde split personality, the story takes a hair pin turn, and he turns out to be the only one to discover the horrible truth.

Fascinating from beginning to end.
So many good novelists have tried their hands at ersatz Victorian sensation novels that it now practically forms its own subgenre. Sarah Waters, Michael Cox, D.J. Taylor, Louis Bayard, Michael Faber and many others have all tried their hand to reproduce the magic of nineteenth-century practitioners of sensation fiction such as Charles Dickens, Ellen Wood, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, J. Meade Falkner and (preeminently) Wilkie Collins. But the popularity for the revival of the form really got going in the late 1980s with Charles Palliser's impossibly long and involving attempt to revivify the form with THE QUINCUNX, which was an international best seller. A decade later, Palliser proved again he could write the most exciting and atmospheric instances of the form with THE UNBURIED, which was even better for being the more tightly contained. After another wait of more than ten years, Palliser again shows his mastery of the form with yet another engaging novel about a mystery surrounding a fascinatingly repulsive community of Victorians.

Almost no one in this novel is made to be likeable even from the start, and none is more contemptible than its protagonist and primary narrator, Richard Shenstone. Richard has been sent down, or rusticated, from Cambridge as the novel starts for unspecified reasons, and has come to stay with his recently bereaved mother and sister in a dirty and decrepit large house they have come to inhabit after the initially unexplained death of Richard's father. Knowing he is expected to comfort them both, Richard instead finds himself engaging in opium smoking, chasing after the housemaid, and making himself obnoxious to the neighbors. It really takes a novelist who knows what he or she is doing to have not just a protagonist but a whole cast of characters as disagreeable as in RUSTICATION, but Palliser knows that he can spin his mystery well enough so that despite the overwhelming selfishness and hypocrisy of Richard's family and his neighbors, readers will be impelled to find out what happens. The resolution to the mystery is not a cheat at all, and works to surprise as well as to satisfy; you don't ever get the sense that Palliser has cheated you by not giving you enough clues or making the stakes important or the resolution worthwhile. Now we just have to wait another yet decade for the next of these!