By 1683, Merivel has ripened into late middle age, but neither his love for his beautiful daughter, Margaret, nor his comfortable existence at Norfolk’s Bidnold Manor relieves his melancholy. Wanting to be “dazzled by Wonders,” he travels to Versailles, hoping to become a court physician, but is let down by its glittering emptiness and his own sartorial foibles. His affair with an unhappily married Swiss noblewoman brings him happiness but comes with unexpected burdens.
Whether facing the illnesses of those closest to him, acting upon his lustful impulses, or pondering his responsibilities to his servants and king, Merivel finds that the compassionate and selfish aspects of his character are inextricably tangled. In a tone moving from contemplative and sad to uproariously funny and back again, Tremain masterfully captures the voice of a man searching for a satisfying and meaningful life as Charles II’s once-glorious reign winds down. It’s an absolute pleasure to spend time in Merivel’s company.
Rose Tremain's Merivel: A Man of His Time will be published by W.W. Norton on April 15th ($26.95, hb, 384pp), so you may have to wait a bit, but you can always get your preorders placed if you're so inclined. If you're in the UK or Canada, where it appeared from Chatto & Windus last September (£18.99, hb), you can pick it up now. I read it last month (the above is the starred review I wrote for Booklist's 2/1 issue), and I'm sure it will make my top 10 of 2013.
If you're at ALA Midwinter now, Library Journal's Galley & Signing Guide says that Merivel "will be given away at the booth during the Spotlight on Adult Literature, Saturday, 1/26, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m." Norton is at booth 2409.
Sarah, thank you so much for this fantastic review! As you know I'm a bit of a Restoration Period buff, but I was unaware Tremain was even working on a sequel! This is exciting news. I look forward to reading it!
ReplyDeleteHi Marci, I hope you'll love this book too - I'd call it a must read for any fan of either Restoration or the Restoration! Plus it has one of the funniest scenes I've ever read anywhere (I don't want to give anything away, but the novel will be worth the wait).
ReplyDeleteThis book sounds fantastic. I have not read Restoration yet, but am looking for a copy so that I can be caught up by the time that the sequel comes out here.
ReplyDelete(guilty look) I haven't read Restoration yet either; I didn't have time to before my deadline, although I'm sure it would be beneficial to do so before reading the sequel. Tremain did an excellent job with summarizing what had happened earlier, though, so I didn't feel lost at all. (And now I have it to look forward to.)
DeleteMy eye keeps going to that golden staircase....
ReplyDeleteI know - the cover design is very clever.
DeleteTake a look at the UK cover for CAVALIER QUEEN by Fiona Mountain . .
DeleteSarah OL
I see a staircase - not the same photo, though, unless I missed something?
DeleteNo, but it IS a staircase . . . and it's 17th century . . . but not the same image.
DeleteI have pre-ordered! Thank you for the heads-up. I am a long-time fan of Restoration, the book - and the movie. Surely, a sequel movie will be forthcoming. One can only hope that Robert Downey would again play Merivel, as he continues to grow. It would be fascinating to see him in the French court.
ReplyDeleteJudith Schara
I'd love to see a film based on the sequel, especially if Downey and others from the original cast (Sam Neill, for example) would come back.
DeleteI really enjoyed this one, Sarah- my review at Historical Novels Info.
ReplyDeleteWhile I was reading "Merivel" it struck me that there should be a literary phrase somewhere meaning "approaching the end of life" - a sort of senior equivalent to the "coming of age " novel, but I can't recall ever seeing one.
Although there's about 15 years from the end of "Restoration" to the beginning of "Merivel", in terms of real life it took Rose Tremain 23 years to get round to the sequel, and I sense that her own ambivalence towards the prospect of old age was probably significant in shaping the feel of the book. And Tremain clearly enjoyed playing on the particularly fashionable status held by melancholia in 17th-century England - any man of real sensibility needed to exhibit a few symptoms to be taken seriously :)
What a wonderful and observant review! I hadn't read it before now; I was avoiding other mentions until mine was written. I agree, there ought to be a phrase describing that, but I can't think of one either.
DeleteI enjoyed her depiction of the late 17th century and the wrap-up of Charles II's reign. I'm also thinking there aren't many novels focusing on this period in one's life; many which have older characters as protagonists have them spending all their time reminiscing about their youth. There's some of that here, but I especially liked meeting the older, wiser, but still lusty and adventurous Merivel.
Thanks, Sarah - I thought your review captured the feel of the novel beautifully.
ReplyDeleteIt may be that we need to create that generic "end-of-life" literary term as the baby-boomers move into that time of life :) Perhaps we're already starting to see a bit more interest in this phase of life in books like "Merivel" and movies like Austrian director Michael Haneke's old-age love story "Amour"?
Just as I was reading "Merivel" I came across Eleanor Updale's delightful and timely post about Robert Burton's 17th century classic "The Anatomy of Melancholia", which is now on my TBR pile. The more things change indeed...
Thanks, Annis. I had a 200-word limit and tried to squeeze as much as I could into it :)
DeleteThat is a great post on Eleanor Updale's site about the "runaway bestseller of the 17th century." How appropriate! And some classic and very funny words of wisdom on readers/writers at the very end, too.