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The Luminist: A Novel
by
David Rocklin (Goodreads Author),
Jacquelyn Mitchard
Photography comprises the bright, tensile thread in the sweep of The Luminist, drawing tight a narrative that shifts between the prejudices and passions of Victorian England and those of colonial Ceylon.
It binds the destinies of Catherine Colebrook, the proper wife of a fading diplomat, who rebels against every convention to chase the romance of science through her lens,...more
It binds the destinies of Catherine Colebrook, the proper wife of a fading diplomat, who rebels against every convention to chase the romance of science through her lens,...more
Paperback, 322 pages
Published
September 27th 2011
by Hawthorne Books
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The Luminist by David Rocklin
ISBN: 978-0-9790188-7-9
Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts
Published 2011
Trade Paperback, 322 pages
This is an incredibly beautiful first novel with overlapping stories of the birth of photography, a moving, forbidden friendships, and the uprising against British dominance in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the 19-th century. It is based loosely on real-life photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
It is the tale of British-born 40-something Catherine Colebrook whose fascination,...more
ISBN: 978-0-9790188-7-9
Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts
Published 2011
Trade Paperback, 322 pages
This is an incredibly beautiful first novel with overlapping stories of the birth of photography, a moving, forbidden friendships, and the uprising against British dominance in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in the 19-th century. It is based loosely on real-life photographer Julia Margaret Cameron.
It is the tale of British-born 40-something Catherine Colebrook whose fascination,...more
Catherine, one of the main characters, is eerily obsessed with the possibilities of photography. She takes it a little too far, but this quality serves to make the novel even more interesting. Eligius is employed as a servant and quickly becomes Catherine's assistant. He facilitates her obsession.
In the midst of political strife and constant problems, Catherine and Eligius develop a deep bond. Eligius is a calm, inspiring presence to Catherine while she almost acts as a mother to him. Eligius, h...more
In the midst of political strife and constant problems, Catherine and Eligius develop a deep bond. Eligius is a calm, inspiring presence to Catherine while she almost acts as a mother to him. Eligius, h...more
The inspiration for The Luminist was the life of Julia Margaret Cameron, a British photographic pioneer who lived from 1815 to 1879.
David Rocklin uses understated and often haunting prose to tell the story of 1830s colonial Ceylon and Catherine Colebrook, a woman obsessed with the possibilities of the emerging field of photography. When Eligius Shourie, a native Ceylonese boy, comes to the Colebrook home as a servant, he begins acting as Catherine's assistant in her struggle to make images perm...more
David Rocklin uses understated and often haunting prose to tell the story of 1830s colonial Ceylon and Catherine Colebrook, a woman obsessed with the possibilities of the emerging field of photography. When Eligius Shourie, a native Ceylonese boy, comes to the Colebrook home as a servant, he begins acting as Catherine's assistant in her struggle to make images perm...more
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May 08, 2012
Shara
added it
Favorite passage:
"On the eve of my trip abroad, my mother spoke to me. She said, 'A good mother should tell you to study, to regard art, to learn to speak of literature and verse.' But she didn't. Rather, she told me to learn to drink sherry and watch the world pass from the panes of cafes. She said I would feel wicked and unbridled and unique. I would watch the women walking alongside important men, tethered by the hands of their children. Women looking neither this way nor that. She told me I...more
"On the eve of my trip abroad, my mother spoke to me. She said, 'A good mother should tell you to study, to regard art, to learn to speak of literature and verse.' But she didn't. Rather, she told me to learn to drink sherry and watch the world pass from the panes of cafes. She said I would feel wicked and unbridled and unique. I would watch the women walking alongside important men, tethered by the hands of their children. Women looking neither this way nor that. She told me I...more
An interesting story about the beginnings of photography and loosely based on the work of Julia Margaret Cameron. Catherine Colebrook, the young wife of Charles, a once important British man, is not like the other British women in colonial Ceylon in the mid-1800's. She passionately follows her fascination with making successful photographic images. Reduced to near poverty they take on a young Eligius as a servant. He soon becomes a willing and knowledgeable apprentice with a very good understand...more
"The thing I do, she thought. May it tie a bit of light to we who come into the world already on the path to departing it. Just a bit of light so we can be seen a little while after we're gone.
"Now," she said.
They coated the glass with sodium hyposulfite, then bathed it. She felt the burning sink through her skin, running into her blood like groundwater.
Positioning the plate inside the warren, she lit more candles and put a mirror next to the light, intensifying it. Julia's image came in a th...more
"Now," she said.
They coated the glass with sodium hyposulfite, then bathed it. She felt the burning sink through her skin, running into her blood like groundwater.
Positioning the plate inside the warren, she lit more candles and put a mirror next to the light, intensifying it. Julia's image came in a th...more
The Luminist,is the story of Catherine Colebrook, the proper wife of a fading diplomat and Eligius, an Indian teenager, who becomes the Colebrook's servant when his father is killed demanding native rights. The story takes place in colonial Ceylon and is a story of both Catherine's obsession with the science of photography and Eligius's struggle with the place that society has relegated him to. Their stories are interwoven and it is an interesting look at that time in history. I liked the charac...more
Loosely inspired by the life of British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, The Luminist tells the story of Catherine Colebrook, a British woman stationed in Ceylon with her aging diplomat husband. Mourning the death of her son's twin, she becomes obsessed with the science of photography. Rocklin captures the breathless zeal of the 19th century hobbyists, who had the luxury of time, money, and help to pursue -- or in Catherine's case -- perfect a craft. Photography was in its nascent stages, in...more
The Illuminist tells the story of Catherine, who is based on the British photographer Julia Margaret Cameron. I did not know anything about Cameron but she took photographs in the mid-1800s, and was well known for the portraits that she took. The real Ms. Cameron really did live in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) where The Illuminist takes place but not until she was much older. It was interesting to me that Cameron was used as a model for the book (the cover is one of Cameron's portraits), yet she was only...more
The glacial pace of this novel, along with the glacial attitudes of the characters, make it a very hard book to plow through. I know it's going to win some prizes. Literary fiction, absolutely. Beautiful sentences do not "wow" me enough to continue the frustration I felt reading this. Reminds me of David Mitchell.
Another abandoned. I got about a hundred pages in and realized I didn't give one fig about any of the characters or have any interest in seeing what happened to them. Despite it being about the birth of photography, I had to put it down and go take a real picture instead.
Enjoyable book about breaking social conventions in Colonial India.
A beautifully realized work! So glad I found this literary treasure!
Victorian England and Colonial Ceylon (later Sri Lanka) is the setting of this book. Catherine Colbrook and her love of photography, which was in its infancy, is the basis of this novel. The struggles of the natives in the face of British supremacy supplies the tension, yet it is the photography that joins Catherine and a native son in an enduring friendship. This novel is told in a haunting prose style that takes some getting used to but once one does the novel unfolds into an amazing story.
Beautifully written, haunting, with fully rounded characters on every page. I loved it!
Interesting Story
I found this book sparingly beautiful, aninterweaving/juxtaposition of places and people and the advent of technology. There were details I wanted to know and some of the prose was a bit stilted, requiring me to read it again to make sure I understood. The characters and emotions it evoked in me were lovely and I wanted to linger over them.
I, for some certainly shallow and deficient character flaw in myself, could not make it throughout this heavy, oppressive novel despite the subject matter. Maybe I'll give it another go in a year or two.
I love the way Rocklin weaves history of photography with political history of Ceylon (Sri Lanka).
Mar 31, 2013
Laura
marked it as to-read
Mar 23, 2013
Kuljit
marked it as to-read
Mar 18, 2013
Mari Skyrin-Sarker
marked it as to-read
Mar 13, 2013
Stephanie Bueno
marked it as to-read
Mar 05, 2013
Valerie vadala homer
is currently reading it
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David Rocklin lives in Los Angeles. "The Luminist" is his first novel, published in October 2011. He is at work on a new novel, "The Daylight Language." He is also a member of the Los Angeles chapter of the Portuguese Artists Colony, a San Francisco-based collective of writers from all backgrounds and disciplines, who meet monthly to host readings, music, spoken word, and other forms of creative e...more
More about David Rocklin...
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