Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030742734X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE • Set in 1828 on a Louisiana sugar plantation, this novel from the bestselling author of Mary Reilly presents a “fresh, unsentimental look at what slave-owning does to (and for) one's interior life.... The writing—so prised and clean limbed—is a marvel" (Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved). Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his mistress. Exploring the permutations of Manon’s own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.
Property
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030742734X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE • Set in 1828 on a Louisiana sugar plantation, this novel from the bestselling author of Mary Reilly presents a “fresh, unsentimental look at what slave-owning does to (and for) one's interior life.... The writing—so prised and clean limbed—is a marvel" (Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved). Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his mistress. Exploring the permutations of Manon’s own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 030742734X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 210
Book Description
WINNER OF THE ORANGE PRIZE • Set in 1828 on a Louisiana sugar plantation, this novel from the bestselling author of Mary Reilly presents a “fresh, unsentimental look at what slave-owning does to (and for) one's interior life.... The writing—so prised and clean limbed—is a marvel" (Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize-winning author of Beloved). Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his mistress. Exploring the permutations of Manon’s own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.
The Fiction of Valerie Martin
Author: Veronica Makowsky
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807162175
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
In the first book-length study of Valerie Martin's fiction, Veronica Makowsky explores the work of this lauded, but often overlooked, contemporary novelist. Winner of the Orange Prize for her novel Property (2003), Martin also won the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly (1990), which was then translated into sixteen languages and made into a popular film. Despite these successes, her critically acclaimed novels and stories have yet to attain a broad readership. Makowsky addresses this disconnect through a detailed critical study of Martin's distinguished oeuvre, grounding each work in its historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts. Makowsky begins with a sketch of Martin's life and then considers each of her ten novels and four collections of short stories. Throughout, Makowsky's deft critique reveals Martin to be an astute observer of people and places. Pointing to both early works, like A Recent Martyr (1987), and recent books, such as The Ghost of the Mary Celeste (2014), Makowsky identifies a potent mixture of pleasure and fear in Martin's writing that emphasizes the author's nuanced exploration of human imagination. Notable, too, are Martin's literary techniques -- especially point of view -- and her allusions to masterpieces in Western literature. The works of Henry and William James in particular influenced Martin's thematic blend of intellectualism and empathy evident in her rounded depictions of women in works like Italian Fever (1999) and The Great Divorce (1994). A rich and substantive study, The Fiction of Valerie Martin demonstrates and deconstructs the mastery of this thought-provoking author, in turn firmly establishing Martin's place in the canon of contemporary writers.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807162175
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Book Description
In the first book-length study of Valerie Martin's fiction, Veronica Makowsky explores the work of this lauded, but often overlooked, contemporary novelist. Winner of the Orange Prize for her novel Property (2003), Martin also won the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly (1990), which was then translated into sixteen languages and made into a popular film. Despite these successes, her critically acclaimed novels and stories have yet to attain a broad readership. Makowsky addresses this disconnect through a detailed critical study of Martin's distinguished oeuvre, grounding each work in its historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts. Makowsky begins with a sketch of Martin's life and then considers each of her ten novels and four collections of short stories. Throughout, Makowsky's deft critique reveals Martin to be an astute observer of people and places. Pointing to both early works, like A Recent Martyr (1987), and recent books, such as The Ghost of the Mary Celeste (2014), Makowsky identifies a potent mixture of pleasure and fear in Martin's writing that emphasizes the author's nuanced exploration of human imagination. Notable, too, are Martin's literary techniques -- especially point of view -- and her allusions to masterpieces in Western literature. The works of Henry and William James in particular influenced Martin's thematic blend of intellectualism and empathy evident in her rounded depictions of women in works like Italian Fever (1999) and The Great Divorce (1994). A rich and substantive study, The Fiction of Valerie Martin demonstrates and deconstructs the mastery of this thought-provoking author, in turn firmly establishing Martin's place in the canon of contemporary writers.
Mary Reilly
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307833879
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of the bestselling Italian Fever and award-winning Property, comes a fresh twist on the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, a novel told from the perspective of Dr. Jekyll's dutiful and intelligent housemaid. "Part psychological novel, part social history, part eerie horror tale ... dark and moving and powerful." —The Washington Post Faithfully weaving in details from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Martin introduces an original and captivating character: Mary is a survivor—scarred but still strong—familiar with evil, yet brimming with devotion and love. As a bond grows between Mary and her tortured employer, she is sent on errands to unsavory districts of London and entrusted with secrets she would rather not know. Unable to confront her hideous suspicions about Dr. Jekyll, Mary ultimately proves the lengths to which she'll go to protect him. Through her astute reflections, we hear the rest of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, and this familiar tale is made more terrifying than we remember it, more complex than we imagined possible.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307833879
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
From the acclaimed author of the bestselling Italian Fever and award-winning Property, comes a fresh twist on the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, a novel told from the perspective of Dr. Jekyll's dutiful and intelligent housemaid. "Part psychological novel, part social history, part eerie horror tale ... dark and moving and powerful." —The Washington Post Faithfully weaving in details from Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Martin introduces an original and captivating character: Mary is a survivor—scarred but still strong—familiar with evil, yet brimming with devotion and love. As a bond grows between Mary and her tortured employer, she is sent on errands to unsavory districts of London and entrusted with secrets she would rather not know. Unable to confront her hideous suspicions about Dr. Jekyll, Mary ultimately proves the lengths to which she'll go to protect him. Through her astute reflections, we hear the rest of the classic Jekyll and Hyde story, and this familiar tale is made more terrifying than we remember it, more complex than we imagined possible.
I Give It to You
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385546408
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
An "immensely satisfying” story (The Guardian) of family, war, art, and betrayal set around an ancient, ancestral home in the Tuscan countryside from the bestselling, award-winning author of Property. When Jan Vidor, an American writer and academic, rents an apartment in a Tuscan villa for the summer, she plans to spend her break working on a novel about Mussolini. Instead, she finds herself captivated by her aristocratic landlady, the elegant, acerbic Beatrice Salviati Bartolo Doyle, whose family has owned Villa Chiara for generations. Jan is intrigued by Beatrice’s stories of World War II, particularly by the tragic fate of her uncle Sandro, who was mysteriously murdered in the driveway of the villa at the conclusion of the war. Day by day, Beatrice makes Jan privy to her family history. As years go by and the friendship is sustained by infrequent meetings, Jan finds she can’t resist writing Beatrice’s story. But as she works on the novel, it becomes clear that the villa itself is at risk and that Beatrice is incapable of saving it. Jan understands that she is telling the story of a catastrophe her friend might prefer to conceal. She presses on.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385546408
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 272
Book Description
An "immensely satisfying” story (The Guardian) of family, war, art, and betrayal set around an ancient, ancestral home in the Tuscan countryside from the bestselling, award-winning author of Property. When Jan Vidor, an American writer and academic, rents an apartment in a Tuscan villa for the summer, she plans to spend her break working on a novel about Mussolini. Instead, she finds herself captivated by her aristocratic landlady, the elegant, acerbic Beatrice Salviati Bartolo Doyle, whose family has owned Villa Chiara for generations. Jan is intrigued by Beatrice’s stories of World War II, particularly by the tragic fate of her uncle Sandro, who was mysteriously murdered in the driveway of the villa at the conclusion of the war. Day by day, Beatrice makes Jan privy to her family history. As years go by and the friendship is sustained by infrequent meetings, Jan finds she can’t resist writing Beatrice’s story. But as she works on the novel, it becomes clear that the villa itself is at risk and that Beatrice is incapable of saving it. Jan understands that she is telling the story of a catastrophe her friend might prefer to conceal. She presses on.
The Ghost of the Mary Celeste
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385533519
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
Based on actual events about an American merchant vessel discovered off the coast of Spain in 1872, this novel—from the prize-winning author of Property—is a spellbinding exploration of love, nature, and the fictions that pass as truth. • “A sly and masterly historical novel, written with intelligence and flair.” —The New York Times Book Review 1872: the American merchant vessel Mary Celeste is discovered adrift off the coast of Spain. Her cargo is intact and there is no sign of struggle, but her crew has disappeared, never to be found. As news of the derelict ghost ship spreads, the Mary Celeste captures imaginations around the world—from a Philadelphia spiritualist medium named Violet Petra to an unknown young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle. In a haunted, death-obsessed age, the Mary Celeste is by turns a provocative mystery, an inspiration to creativity, and the tragic story of a family doomed by the sea.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0385533519
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 305
Book Description
Based on actual events about an American merchant vessel discovered off the coast of Spain in 1872, this novel—from the prize-winning author of Property—is a spellbinding exploration of love, nature, and the fictions that pass as truth. • “A sly and masterly historical novel, written with intelligence and flair.” —The New York Times Book Review 1872: the American merchant vessel Mary Celeste is discovered adrift off the coast of Spain. Her cargo is intact and there is no sign of struggle, but her crew has disappeared, never to be found. As news of the derelict ghost ship spreads, the Mary Celeste captures imaginations around the world—from a Philadelphia spiritualist medium named Violet Petra to an unknown young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle. In a haunted, death-obsessed age, the Mary Celeste is by turns a provocative mystery, an inspiration to creativity, and the tragic story of a family doomed by the sea.
Sea Lovers
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
ISBN: 1782832106
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
Each of these twelve stories is a complete world, where ordinary lives are transformed, myths bloom into reality and the everyday is haunted by obsession and duplicity. A painter is made insufferable by success; a writer is driven to bury the evidence of his inadequacy. Metamorphosis fragments a marriage and beasts bear the consequences of human failings. Living creatures scratch out hauntings, rumours spread like fire. Fantastical beings are made flesh while mortals are engaged in a struggle that should be honourable but more often corrupts. Lyrical and macabre, Valerie Martin's stories are wry and unexpected too. The question 'Are we animals, or are we something else?' is answered by an ancient proposition both whimsical and disturbing: we are neither and both.
Publisher: Serpent's Tail
ISBN: 1782832106
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
Each of these twelve stories is a complete world, where ordinary lives are transformed, myths bloom into reality and the everyday is haunted by obsession and duplicity. A painter is made insufferable by success; a writer is driven to bury the evidence of his inadequacy. Metamorphosis fragments a marriage and beasts bear the consequences of human failings. Living creatures scratch out hauntings, rumours spread like fire. Fantastical beings are made flesh while mortals are engaged in a struggle that should be honourable but more often corrupts. Lyrical and macabre, Valerie Martin's stories are wry and unexpected too. The question 'Are we animals, or are we something else?' is answered by an ancient proposition both whimsical and disturbing: we are neither and both.
The Fiction of Valerie Martin
Author: Veronica Makowsky
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807162183
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
In the first book-length study of Valerie Martin's fiction, Veronica Makowsky explores the work of this lauded, but often overlooked, contemporary novelist. Winner of the Orange Prize for her novel Property (2003), Martin also won the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly (1990), which was then translated into sixteen languages and made into a popular film. Despite these successes, her critically acclaimed novels and stories have yet to attain a broad readership. Makowsky addresses this disconnect through a detailed critical study of Martin's distinguished oeuvre, grounding each work in its historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts. Makowsky begins with a sketch of Martin's life and then considers each of her ten novels and four collections of short stories. Throughout, Makowsky's deft critique reveals Martin to be an astute observer of people and places. Pointing to both early works, like A Recent Martyr (1987), and recent books, such as The Ghost of the Mary Celeste (2014), Makowsky identifies a potent mixture of pleasure and fear in Martin's writing that emphasizes the author's nuanced exploration of human imagination. Notable, too, are Martin's literary techniques -- especially point of view -- and her allusions to masterpieces in Western literature. The works of Henry and William James in particular influenced Martin's thematic blend of intellectualism and empathy evident in her rounded depictions of women in works like Italian Fever (1999) and The Great Divorce (1994). A rich and substantive study, The Fiction of Valerie Martin demonstrates and deconstructs the mastery of this thought-provoking author, in turn firmly establishing Martin's place in the canon of contemporary writers.
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 0807162183
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 280
Book Description
In the first book-length study of Valerie Martin's fiction, Veronica Makowsky explores the work of this lauded, but often overlooked, contemporary novelist. Winner of the Orange Prize for her novel Property (2003), Martin also won the Kafka Prize for Mary Reilly (1990), which was then translated into sixteen languages and made into a popular film. Despite these successes, her critically acclaimed novels and stories have yet to attain a broad readership. Makowsky addresses this disconnect through a detailed critical study of Martin's distinguished oeuvre, grounding each work in its historical, cultural, and theoretical contexts. Makowsky begins with a sketch of Martin's life and then considers each of her ten novels and four collections of short stories. Throughout, Makowsky's deft critique reveals Martin to be an astute observer of people and places. Pointing to both early works, like A Recent Martyr (1987), and recent books, such as The Ghost of the Mary Celeste (2014), Makowsky identifies a potent mixture of pleasure and fear in Martin's writing that emphasizes the author's nuanced exploration of human imagination. Notable, too, are Martin's literary techniques -- especially point of view -- and her allusions to masterpieces in Western literature. The works of Henry and William James in particular influenced Martin's thematic blend of intellectualism and empathy evident in her rounded depictions of women in works like Italian Fever (1999) and The Great Divorce (1994). A rich and substantive study, The Fiction of Valerie Martin demonstrates and deconstructs the mastery of this thought-provoking author, in turn firmly establishing Martin's place in the canon of contemporary writers.
Trespass
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0297856286
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 233
Book Description
'A compelling, wonderfully observed study of families and the histories from which they evolve ... a strikingly resonant and emotive novel' TIME OUT 'Serene echoes of Ian McEwan's SATURDAY' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Mesmerizing ... a war novel that gives you a glimpse of what war might really mean ... Trespass revels in truth' WASHINGTON POST Toby and Salome are a young, modern couple living in New York, but their backgrounds are world apart. He is a middle-class all-American boy from a family of academics; she is a Croatian refugee raised in New Orleans. When Salome unexpectedly becomes pregnant, they decide to spend their lives together and hastily marry. But finding a way to reconcile their families and pasts proves a difficult task. Toby's mother's deep-seated mistrust of Salome causes tension, leaving her unable to accept her new daughter-in-law. But Salome' s past, full of dangerous secrets, is more horrifying than any of them could imagine - and the violence that destroyed her homeland is far from over...
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0297856286
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 233
Book Description
'A compelling, wonderfully observed study of families and the histories from which they evolve ... a strikingly resonant and emotive novel' TIME OUT 'Serene echoes of Ian McEwan's SATURDAY' FINANCIAL TIMES 'Mesmerizing ... a war novel that gives you a glimpse of what war might really mean ... Trespass revels in truth' WASHINGTON POST Toby and Salome are a young, modern couple living in New York, but their backgrounds are world apart. He is a middle-class all-American boy from a family of academics; she is a Croatian refugee raised in New Orleans. When Salome unexpectedly becomes pregnant, they decide to spend their lives together and hastily marry. But finding a way to reconcile their families and pasts proves a difficult task. Toby's mother's deep-seated mistrust of Salome causes tension, leaving her unable to accept her new daughter-in-law. But Salome' s past, full of dangerous secrets, is more horrifying than any of them could imagine - and the violence that destroyed her homeland is far from over...
Italian Fever
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375705228
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
Part romance, part gothic suspense story, this is the compelling tale of an American woman's awakening as she tumbles headlong into a mystery, art, and eros—from the bestselling, award-winning author of Property. • "Spellbinding ... A virtuoso ... Martin's competence has kindled into brilliance." —The New York Times Book Review Lucy leads a quiet, solitary life working for a best-selling (but remarkably untalented) writer. When he dies at his villa in Tuscany, Lucy flies to Tuscany to settle his affairs. What begins as a grim chore soon threatens Stark's Emersonian self-reliance--and her very sense of what is real. The villa harbors secrets: a missing manuscript, neighbors whose Byzantine arrogance veils their dark past, a phantom whose nocturnal visits tear a gaping hole in Lucy's well-honed skepticism. And to complicate matters: Massimo, a married man whose tender attentions render Lucy breathless. Smart, sophisticated, achingly beautiful, Italian Fever is one of the most original and compelling novels of the year.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375705228
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
Part romance, part gothic suspense story, this is the compelling tale of an American woman's awakening as she tumbles headlong into a mystery, art, and eros—from the bestselling, award-winning author of Property. • "Spellbinding ... A virtuoso ... Martin's competence has kindled into brilliance." —The New York Times Book Review Lucy leads a quiet, solitary life working for a best-selling (but remarkably untalented) writer. When he dies at his villa in Tuscany, Lucy flies to Tuscany to settle his affairs. What begins as a grim chore soon threatens Stark's Emersonian self-reliance--and her very sense of what is real. The villa harbors secrets: a missing manuscript, neighbors whose Byzantine arrogance veils their dark past, a phantom whose nocturnal visits tear a gaping hole in Lucy's well-honed skepticism. And to complicate matters: Massimo, a married man whose tender attentions render Lucy breathless. Smart, sophisticated, achingly beautiful, Italian Fever is one of the most original and compelling novels of the year.
The Great Divorce
Author: Valerie Martin
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375727183
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
From the bestselling author of Mary Reilly and prize-winning author of Property comes a riveting story of three women in New Orleans who must face the repercussions of sex, betrayal and the wilder side of human nature. • “Haunting…. An utterly compelling work of fiction.” —The New York Times Three surprising women, their lives riven by divorce both literal and metaphorical: Ellen Clayton, reeling from her husband’s decision to leave her after twenty years, finds meaning in caring for her teenage daughters and in her work as the veterinarian at the New Orleans Zoo. Her young assistant Camille, preyed on by a series of contemptuous men, experiences bizarre episodes in which she feels herself transforming into one of the great cats in her care. And Elisabeth Boyer, a passionate Creole aristocrat trapped on her husband’s antebellum plantation, finds deliverance in the form of a black leopard, a powerful, merciless ally from the wild. Their unfolding stories blur distinctions of time, class and social construct to reveal the ordinary and extraordinary measures required to make our fractured world whole.
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0375727183
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 353
Book Description
From the bestselling author of Mary Reilly and prize-winning author of Property comes a riveting story of three women in New Orleans who must face the repercussions of sex, betrayal and the wilder side of human nature. • “Haunting…. An utterly compelling work of fiction.” —The New York Times Three surprising women, their lives riven by divorce both literal and metaphorical: Ellen Clayton, reeling from her husband’s decision to leave her after twenty years, finds meaning in caring for her teenage daughters and in her work as the veterinarian at the New Orleans Zoo. Her young assistant Camille, preyed on by a series of contemptuous men, experiences bizarre episodes in which she feels herself transforming into one of the great cats in her care. And Elisabeth Boyer, a passionate Creole aristocrat trapped on her husband’s antebellum plantation, finds deliverance in the form of a black leopard, a powerful, merciless ally from the wild. Their unfolding stories blur distinctions of time, class and social construct to reveal the ordinary and extraordinary measures required to make our fractured world whole.