The Meaning of Night (The Meaning of Night #1)

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The Meaning of Night (The Meaning of Night #1)

3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 · rating details · 4,478 ratings · 726 reviews

"After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an
oyster supper." So begins the "enthralling" (Booklist, starred review)
and "ingenious" (Boston Globe) story of Edward Glyver, booklover,
scholar, and murderer. As a young boy, Glyver always believed he was destined for greatness. A chance discovery convinces him that he was right: greatness does await him,...more

Paperback, 720 pages

Published October 17th 2007 by W. W. Norton & Company (first published September 7th 2006)

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Community Reviews

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Oct 28, 2007 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This pseudo-Victorian study in thwarted ambition is a literary tour de force. It's the tale of the rightful heir to one of the most powerful houses in England, brought up in anonymity, who learns of his true identity by chance and embarks on an all-consuming struggle to reclaim his inheritance. The atmosphere of the period is faithfully recreated but the real strength of the book lies in the voice of the central character through which the author manages to convey so much complexity that we find...more

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Feb 20, 2008 Leah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: NO ONE

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

14 likes · like · see review

Sep 23, 2011 Terry rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction

This book started out great. The first line, "After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an oyster supper." really hooked me. As the book continued it proved interesting, a tale narrated in the first person by a man of obvious derangement convinced of his own rationality and the fact that he is justified in any action taken towards furthering his own ends.

Cox does an excellent job of capturing the feel of a Victorian novel, and I think that may ultimately have been the p...more

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Jun 26, 2009 Colleen rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Fans of fantasy noir and for journiers

Recommended to Colleen by: Libby

Shelves: whodunit, historical-fiction

3 1/2

This is another book which is, in a way, hard for me to review. The book was not without its flaws. In many ways I can think of more negative things to say about the book than positive ones - but, despite that, I still liked it. I didn't love it, and I wouldn't rave about it or say that it's a must read... but it is interesting, and I wouldn't suggest you not read it, either.

The book started with promise, and I was enthralled. It was texture and sumptuous, as we journied with Edward through...more

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Apr 12, 2008 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Laura by: Mary Bennion

I was warned to persevere through the slow beginning, and after a few chapters it really does become the gripping page-turner promised in the back cover reviews. In the first sentence, the main character murders an unknown man. He shortly reveals himself to be a grossly immoral opium-eater bent on revenge — hardly an auspicious beginning even for an anti-hero, but at least an intriguing one. Soon the intrigue becomes almost palpable and the hero becomes quite sympathetic as layer after layer of...more

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Dec 19, 2007 Dale rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm reasonably certain that this is the first book I've given 2 stars since joining GoodReads. Partly because I'm easily amused; partly because I tend to read stuff I already know I'm going to like (recommended by a friend, work of an author I've enjoyed in the past, good reviews, etc). I borrowed The Meaning of Night from my mother-in-law because I needed something to read on the commute and I wasn't buying myself new books so close to Christmas. I asked her if it was any good; her response was...more I'm reasonably certain that this is the first book I've given 2 stars since joining GoodReads. Partly because I'm easily amused; partly because I tend to read stuff I already know I'm going to like (recommended by a friend, work of an author I've enjoyed in the past, good reviews, etc). I borrowed The Meaning of Night from my mother-in-law because I needed something to read on the commute and I wasn't buying myself new books so close to Christmas. I asked her if it was any good; her response was "eh". Bad sign.

So this is, as the subtitle indicates, a confessional novel, and the central conceit is that it's "real", recently discovered by a professor who specializes in Victoriana. So it's written in a Victorian style ... kind of. I had a nagging feeling while reading the entire thing that there were anachronisms, not in terms of facts and places but in terms of the narrator's attitudes and other intangibles. I wasn't able to suspend my disbelief at all - the entire book felt like an adult in the 21st century pretending to write as someone in 1855. To my ear it lacked authenticity.

The book suffers from other problems as well. SPOILERS AHEAD (trust me, you don't want to read the book, so let me spare you the trouble). The main character confesses to murdering a stranger on page 1. He also quickly indicates that he only killed the stranger as practice so that he would feel confident enough to murder his enemy. So right off we have an extremely unsympathetic protagonist. Then for 600 pages we get the back story of why the protagonist thinks his enemy deserves to be murdered. It's extremely straightforward stuff - I kept waiting for a twist but nothing happened that I didn't see coming. Then, in the end, the protagonist kills his enemy in the most boring way imaginable. There's zero character development and zero conflict. Protagonist hates his enemy, justifies his hate, and kills his enemy. There's never the slightest doubt that the protagonist will survive because he has to in order to write the ex post facto confession. Nor is there any way for him to have a change of heart, nor is there any chance of him getting caught, ibid.

And speaking of "ibid", a word about footnotes. The book technically has two narrators - the protagonist writing the confession, and the professor who "discovered the manuscript". The second narrator only intrudes in two ways - an introduction at the very beginning, and footnotes throughout the text. Now, I appreciate a good footnote. Other books I've recently read have made great use of footnotes. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, for instance - hilarious, vibrant asides and explanations made in the footnotes which really enhance the overall experience in a meta-fiction kind of way. Or the edition of A Tale of Two Cities I read - those footnotes were useful because they addressed certain things that made the text clearer, explaining things which Dickens (correctly) felt would be understood by his contemporary audience. The footnotes in The Meaning of Night, however, were just awful. Bear in mind that the novel only has one author, pretending simultaneously to be a Victorian murderer and a modern professor. So every obscure reference in the book was chosen deliberately by the author, and then footnoted by the author, but often in spectacularly unhelpful ways. A running theme is that the protagonist loves rare books, so he will occasional make passing reference to "so-and-so's folio". Then the footnote gives the folio's complete author, complete title, and date of publication, and other utterly useless esoterica which add nothing to the bottom line understanding. Again, I kept waiting for the professor to become a true character through the footnotes, to see some kind of relevance down there, but it never happened. Alas.

Like a true English major, I've now written my longest review for the book I've liked the least. It just bugs me when books are bad!!!(less)

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Sep 02, 2007 Duffy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

A book lover and a murderer... isn't that something that will make you curious why? So, I'm reading. =) lets see how it ends up tho.

A very long story... I haven't had the time to finish this yet. i'm still on the part where I can't understand what his purpose is. =) hopefully, i'll be able to finish soon.

Sept 15, 2007... I have finally finished reading this book. I can't say that I love it, but I can say that I liked it... a little.

A story full of twist, turns and mystery which have prompted...more

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Aug 21, 2012 Christina rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Decently-done, mildly thrilling mystery, written in a Victorian mock-memoir format. I liked it, and I really respect the level of research Michael Cox must have done (even if he did border on pedantry sometimes) but I just didn't go gaga over it. I tend to feel sort of "meh" about mysteries in general.
Blue bookcase review here: http://thebluebookcase.blogspot.com/2...

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Feb 09, 2008 Sarah rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 21, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone looking for a fresher perspective on mid victorian lit

Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by: the nice people on bookcrossing,com

Shelves: bookcrossing-books, read-in-2011

Allow me to stop and doff my stove pipe hat to you Mr Cox, for truly you are a man who has done his research. Having recently perused the weighty tome that is The Meaning of Night, I am reacquainted with what it means to be a man obsessed. Both the protaganist and the author have their fixations but over 700 pages it is apparent that Michael Cox's obsession for mid-Victorian history and literature is as all consuming as Edward Glyvers determination for revenge.

Whether you regard the footnotes a...more

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May 20, 2013 Barb rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like to go to very long meetings

Shelves: hf-victorian-1837-1901, read-in-2008

Obviously Mr. Cox worked long and hard on this novel, it's seven hundred and three pages long AND was named one of the ten best books of the year by The Economist, the Washington Post, Booklist and Booksense. So it must be great, right?

I loved the cover, most especially the spine of the book, it's beautiful and I eagerly anticipated the story within. I fully expected to become engrossed in a fabulously long tale of treachery set in Victorian England. I love historical novels of suspense which i...more

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Apr 21, 2008 Tripp rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night is fantastic. It mixes the Victorian novel with the noir crime thriller to make for a completely engrossing reading experience.

While the story never leaves England, it has an epic feel. It follows the cursed life of Edward Glyver from birth in Dorset to troubled academic career to fixer for a London law firm. The tortuous path allows Cox to describe a wide range of English scenes from the hellish London to the idyllic Evenwood, home to Glyver's greatest enemy.

G...more Michael Cox's The Meaning of Night is fantastic. It mixes the Victorian novel with the noir crime thriller to make for a completely engrossing reading experience.

While the story never leaves England, it has an epic feel. It follows the cursed life of Edward Glyver from birth in Dorset to troubled academic career to fixer for a London law firm. The tortuous path allows Cox to describe a wide range of English scenes from the hellish London to the idyllic Evenwood, home to Glyver's greatest enemy.

Glyver is driven, to the point of madness, to take revenge on the one who caused all of his failures and setbacks in life. Glyver is no hero. In the first pages of the book, he murders an innocent so that he can be ready when it counts. While he pines for a high born love, he has a prostitute lover, and also sleeps with the lower rent hookers. He drinks to the point of passing out in ditches and is a frequent user of opium. And there is more.

Astoundingly, Cox has made this unlovable rogue largely sympathetic. Part of it is his eloquence, but it also the sense of righteousness he brings to his quest for vengeance. As we learn more of what his enemy has done, we become more and more invested in his story and how he might find redemption. While those well-read in the genres are likely to spot the plot twists, the story is so fast paced and well described, you won't care. Few will see how nearly everything mentioned eventually ties back into the main story.

I particularly liked how Cox paints a wide English canvas without building up the overlong subplots that weigh down Victorians like Trollope and Dickens. We see Eton, the dark part of London, the law offices, Dorset and country life without having to wade through excessive detail and oceans of characters. Those looking for the Dickensian groteques will delight in the likes of Fordyce Jukes, Glyver's downstairs neighbor and co-worker and source of constant irritation.

Amidst all of this, there is a question (SPOILER) as to how reliable Glyver actually is. He is clearly a paranoid maniac, but is he an Ahab or is he Verbal Kint? There are odd little elements throughout that might sway your opinion, I remain uncertain. (/SPOILER.)

This book has me all fired up for the unread Victorian homages on my shelves. Fingersmith and the Crimson and White, here I come.(less)

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Apr 17, 2012 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

A classic gothic mystery set in, where else, England, in the early Victorian era. Got a little long toward the end- and gave me plenty of time to figure it out, which ruined the ending for me. Very interesting format- reality eliding with fiction-he footnotes many real works, and he footnotes things that are part of the fictional story. Mostly, in this book, we live in the twisted and bitter world of the protagonist. The fun of this book is whether or not to identify with the main character and...more

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May 27, 2008 Jesse rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: only my enemies

I could only get up to page 166 in this book before I gave up, thats out of about 600 pages.

This book was like the love child of Dickens and Austen, which is then orphanned and left to be raised by a commune of varrious victorian era British melodramatists. It took at least 100 pages before the author finally got to the point of telling us precisely WHY his main character needs revenge on someone. Even then, 60 pages into the story of this guys past, I'm falling asleep.

I found the characters two...more

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Oct 16, 2009 Mary Etta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: book group

Book group October mystery read.

As I'm reading this book I'm amazed at the complete aura of mystery--from the stated concept of the book to the story itself. I don't read much mystery so I'm easily fooled. This link gives great author information--http://www.nytimes.com/2...

Finally finished it. My read of it suffered from having to set it aside for too long midway, but the last quarter was very engaging once again. Even my book group's review with spoilers didn't spoil it as I got back into it...more

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Jul 20, 2007 Bonnie G rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anglophiles and mystery readers

The author included spectacular amounts of detail from Victorian England, even to the details of the invention of photography. The story moves slowly, but if you love English novels of the Victorian period, it mimics them and improves on them. Dean thinks the ending could have been better, including an additional manuscript which includes a description of Glyver inheriting the estate from his exhiled position. Perhaps he would discover a document that would conclusively earn him the estate and a...more

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Nov 19, 2012 Matt Schiariti rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the most unique books I've ever read. Is it because it's a murder mystery? No. Because it's told in the first person? No. What makes it unlike any other book I've read is that from the very beginning, from the very preface itself, this book is set up as if it were a true manuscript found by someone and put to publication. This goes right down to editor's notes fleshing out names, events, times and places for the reader, not all of which are made up.

It is a work of fiction though....more

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Oct 28, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.”

Michael Cox pulls no punches with the beginning of The Meaning of Night: A Confession. You are immediately drawn into the story of Edward Glyver, and you have absolutely no reason to like him. After all, the man just committed a cold-blooded murder. In addition to being a killer, he’s a thug, a drug-user, he patronizes prostitutes…and by the end of the book, I was rooting for him. That is quite a deficit to ove...more

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Mar 21, 2012 Earnie Painter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'm not certain that I'm prepared to write this review yet. I finished the novel yesterday and I'm still savoring it. When I've read a book this good I can't start reading another book right away; I have a to wait a few days while I think about it and let it live inside me a while.

What did I think? Amazing. I'm not an expert on Victorian England so I can't vouch for its authenticity, but I can say that I was convinced. The dirty streets, the unapologetic duplicity of a man who is madly in love w...more I'm not certain that I'm prepared to write this review yet. I finished the novel yesterday and I'm still savoring it. When I've read a book this good I can't start reading another book right away; I have a to wait a few days while I think about it and let it live inside me a while.

What did I think? Amazing. I'm not an expert on Victorian England so I can't vouch for its authenticity, but I can say that I was convinced. The dirty streets, the unapologetic duplicity of a man who is madly in love with one woman, but who will be with many others when the need arises; the drugs purchased freely from a druggist; the lush environment of Evenwood Park; the class distinctions that the narrator lived and breathed; all of it was very real for me while reading, too real at times.

THIS NEXT PART COULD CONTAIN SPOILERS. (I'm not entirely certain what that means or if it's appropriate here, but I don't want to be guilty of spoiling a read for somebody, so I'll choose safe over sorry.) (view spoiler)

It's the bouncing back and forth from the passionate, delusional state of mind to the cool, conservative snippets written by this fictional editor that kept me entranced and that are going to force me to read the book again. As I said earlier it took a while for me to read. First of all, it's a large book. Secondly, some of the descriptions were so graphic and the confrontations so intense, and they rang so clear in my head that I had to put the book down for days at a time. Thus, while simply rereading the first few pages in order to write this review I'm reminded of things that I had forgotten, and now having read to the end they make much more sense. So, as I said, I will probably read the book a second time just to see how it all fits together. It's pretty tight; he ties things together very well. Perhaps I will be more critical the second time. But, how can you be critical of a man who has stated very clearly in the beginning that he has sought not truth, but meaning?

I think it's interesting that the people who have given the book the fewest stars have far more to say about it than those who have truly enjoyed it. Perhaps that's the way of things. Maybe they're justified in spelling out exactly what they disliked about the book. If it were me, though, I wouldn't spend my time writing so much about something that I didn't think was worth reading. But, I digress.(less)

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Feb 12, 2012 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not only is this as "intelligent as it is beguiling", to paraphrase The New York Times review, but it is geniusly plotted. The opening of Edward killing a complete stranger in order to find out if he is capable of the act of murder, so that he may kill his lifes long enemy, not just pulls you into the narrative it curls its finger around your collar and drags you in. As the story then slowly moves back through Edwards history, somehow Cox makes him a man we are not replused by. We forget Edwards...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Stuart added it · review of another edition

“After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper”. Thus begins “The Meaning of Night”, capturing your attention immediately, as intended. For a while, the author dwells on the psychological effect on the protagonist from having killed someone, and it reads a little like “Crime and Punishment”. So the relatively blasé tone of the first sentence is not representative of the character’s real feelings, as we see when the story goes on, and he sounds like a Victori...more

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Jul 26, 2011 Vd rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Cox has a beautiful literary style. Also, a flair for dramatic irony and psychological tension. He pays great attention to details and it is evident that he loves books and the arts.
The story depends much on the telling as the plot is somewhat ponderous and lacks pace. So, it's a good thing that the language of the author is very engaging.
However, I am disappointed with the story. The protagonist is interesting enough but he does not attain the extraordinariness or intellectual greatness that we...more

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May 15, 2011 Timothy Hallinan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Michael Cox was an expert on the Victorian short story and especially on ghost stories who turned out a biography and many articles but always wanted to write a novel. In 2004 he began to lose his sight to vascular cancer and immediately began working on the book he'd been thinking about for decades: The Meaning of Night. It's a rip-snorter that begins, "After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn's for an oyster supper." What follows is dizzyingly plotted, totally convincing, a...more

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Dec 20, 2010 Jamie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

For someone as enthusiastic for the Victorian “switch-a-roo” as I seem to be, I have say, once I finished all the Sarah Waters books and ventured on to find others, I’ve been consistently disappointed. It’s the escapism of the Victorian mystery I so esteem, and Cox, like Waters, Farber and Byatt, does a wonderful job of providing bed curtains and smoky grates, bottles of laudanum and ale houses, cloaks, pianofortes and servants quarters. What he didn’t have such a way with, was, unfortunately, h...more For someone as enthusiastic for the Victorian “switch-a-roo” as I seem to be, I have say, once I finished all the Sarah Waters books and ventured on to find others, I’ve been consistently disappointed. It’s the escapism of the Victorian mystery I so esteem, and Cox, like Waters, Farber and Byatt, does a wonderful job of providing bed curtains and smoky grates, bottles of laudanum and ale houses, cloaks, pianofortes and servants quarters. What he didn’t have such a way with, was, unfortunately, his leading man.
So mysterious is our “dark horse” of a narrator (Glyver, Glapthorn, Tansor…but always, always EDWARD!), it seemed I had a hard time caring about him at all. While I took the bait on P. Rainsford Daunt, hating him like the murderous, despicable swindler he was; and sat up a little straighter to read any passages concerning the intelligent, independent vixen Emily Carteret, with her big dark eyes and fine dark hair, her prime spectacles and statuesque height; I never got a full mental picture of Edward at all.
So focused on his revenge with daunt, his love of Emily, his suspicion of Miss Boussand and his fatherly love of Mr. Tredgold, he completely effaced himself, leaving no room for any reader to give a flip about the constantly betrayed, misunderstood and murderous Glapthorn. Worst of all, for a book with the captivating and curling, inhibited start of lazily listing off the events of his evening after killing an innocent man, you never really come to terms with WHY he has to kill him. To practice?
The only effect it had on me was to think he wasn’t much better than his adversary, the dreaded Daunt. But, at least Daunt was educated and an esteemed poet. What was Glapthorn other than a strange victim-voyeur and useless thug?
The same can be said of the burdensome plot concerning Lady Tansor/Laura Fairmile. Her “vengeance” is like a rebel without a cause. The only person she seems to hurt is Edward, which he might have done himself, had she not done it for him. Always imagining himself the victim, it was a bit painful to be read his mother’s death wish—that her son not be raised an mindless gentleman who works for nothing…as her son puts his body and soul into remaining oblivious of her words and instead only collecting these bits and proof of his lineage.
I intend to read The Glass of Time, but only in the hope it focuses on Emily, a character I loved AND related to (evil, a little, but also young and in love and therefore multifaceted, unlike her obsessive victim). As is so often the issue with the Victorian persuasion, the need for a mystery trumped the believability of one, and granted, they’re almost always a stretch, hence the genre, but still, it’s the craft and creation of the mystery that makes it wondrous, not HAVING one for the sake of a mystery. If you can’t say, “ah!” at the end, it wasn’t that well done. And, the idea of exile in the snow was a little too similar to a Frankenstein, and the *, ** and + became a compulsion and made it difficult to keep my place. For the sake of a literary tactic to provide the impression of a frame story, I could have done without knowing exactly where everything was--thank you very much. If it had worked a walking tour in the back (a la The Shadow of the Wind) would have worked perfectly.

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Oct 24, 2010 Wendybird rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

Despite its length, the story is a basic tale of thwarted justice in which many events can be anticipated. If the author meant to emulate Dickens, he did a fine job, more succinct and readable for contemporaries, while creating authentic Victorian atmosphere.

This book really is superb in many ways. Its descriptive prose and storytelling flow so naturally I coudn't help becoming absorbed in a predictable tale. The transition from the present to the past revealing the mysterious cause of the prota...more

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Jul 18, 2010 Allison rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: hardcore historical novel fans only

A Victorian-era historical novel, complete with your typical heir and his lost fortune. This effort does have some twists, but overall just falls flat. The format is written as a 'confession', a manuscript bound together with supporting documentation and unearthed and printed in modern times after a scholar discovers it among library manuscripts and materials donated to a university by the family. The biggest problem I see is that the book just lacks any depth to its characters at all. We begin...more

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Feb 27, 2010 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I absolutely loathed this book up until the last few pages.

It’s a Victorian mystery/suspense, but the suspense is clunky. ie: the protag meets with someone who can answer the giant mystery. The protag hears half the story, but right when it is getting to the good stuff, the visitor announces it is late and that the protag should visit him tomorrow. On the way home the visitor is killed… Stringing… things… along… This happened a number of times and was annoying rather than suspenseful. Everyone s...more I absolutely loathed this book up until the last few pages.

It’s a Victorian mystery/suspense, but the suspense is clunky. ie: the protag meets with someone who can answer the giant mystery. The protag hears half the story, but right when it is getting to the good stuff, the visitor announces it is late and that the protag should visit him tomorrow. On the way home the visitor is killed… Stringing… things… along… This happened a number of times and was annoying rather than suspenseful. Everyone seemed to die at really inopportune moments for the protag.

There are tons of coincidences. (ie. The protag needs to break into a building. His housekeeper’s daughter shows up with her new fiancé and guess what? The fiancé works in that exact building!)

The protag and almost every other character are REALLY unlikeable. The story opens with the protag killing a complete stranger just to prove that he has it in himself to murder (he’s about to take on his nemesis). After the killing, the next 100 pages took me almost a month to read because they were so incredibly boring – we watch the protag wander around in a drugged, drunken stupor as he visits a friend, meets his mistress and alludes over and over again to the great mystery that we are all going to learn in the near future. But nothing happens until he starts to tell his life story to his friend Le Grice (page 100). And even then there are chunks that I skimmed.

Ultimately this story is about revenge – the driving power of revenge and the history of the protag that validates it. Revenge does nothing for me. I kept asking myself why I was reading this book. I hated everything about it. The answer was that I wanted to know how it ended. And even the ending of the plot was disappointing. This is definitely no happily-ever-after story.

However, there is a post script at the very last page that made me love this book. (and that wasn’t because the post script was from Lanzarote – a place most Americans have never heard of, but where I lived in Arrecife for 5 really wonderful months. It can’t be accidental that the post script is set there. At first glance, Lanzarote resembles ‘hell’ on earth.) The reason why I gave this three stars instead of one is because it is a story with a moral. A moral that once I got, I really liked.

The moral put the rest of the book in perspective, particularly the unlikeability of the characters. It made sense. I could see what the author was doing, and for me this made all the difference. I still can’t give it more than three stars, because I only kept reading it for lack of anything else in the house. However, I would recommend it to other who like Victorian stories and are willing to slog through its weaknesses.
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Oct 22, 2009 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

I love the language in this book. The actual murders that take place are not the feature of the story line. As an American, I reveled in the floweriness of alternate spellings of such words as "connexion," which I would assume is an archaic British spelling?

This tone and mood of the book's atmosphere is well conveyed in the cover image, contrary to the old adage "don't judge a book.." The age is in the late 1880s and manners and composure are integral. Proper and laced up whilst facing one anot...more

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Aug 31, 2009 Barbara Martin rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, crime, literary, suspense-fiction

“After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.”

The reasoning behind this cold-blooded murder is soon revealed in the opening pages. The killer, Edward Glyver aka Glapthorn, confesses to the killing and others he has planned.

Portions of Edward’s story are told by an assorted collection of people in his life until his complicated past is revealed. Bella, a courtesan from “a highly select club…catered for the amorous needs of the most discerning patrons of me...more “After killing the red-haired man, I took myself off to Quinn’s for an oyster supper.”

The reasoning behind this cold-blooded murder is soon revealed in the opening pages. The killer, Edward Glyver aka Glapthorn, confesses to the killing and others he has planned.

Portions of Edward’s story are told by an assorted collection of people in his life until his complicated past is revealed. Bella, a courtesan from “a highly select club…catered for the amorous needs of the most discerning patrons of means”, Le Grice, a best friend from his school days, and others, with whom he is careful not to reveal too much to.

His childhood comprises of being raised by a single mother, through whom Edward develops a love of books, and attends Eton. It is at Eton where he meets Phoebus Daunt, soon to become his nemesis and the reason behind Edward’s departure from the school.

Ten years after his mother’s death, Edward goes through her papers to learn she was a successful novelist and finds her diaries: small, black books that reveal his true identity. He is not Edward Glyver, but Edward Charles Duport, a member of one of the oldest and most powerful families in all of England. Edward believes he is the rightful heir to the large country estate, Evenwood. Edward decides to reclaim his birth right and learns that Lord Tansor has designated his heir as the wicked Phoebus Daunt. One of the motivating factors for Edward’s obsession is the Evenwood library which contains rare books from the 15th century.

Edward is obsessed with the theft of his birthright, and books. In proving his birthright he searches in the more disreputable sections of London where he learns deep dark secrets.

Phoebus Daunt is a poet and a leader of a gang of thieves, thugs and counterfeiters; and locates an inscribed copy of Donne’s Devotions that confirms his suspicion that Glapthorn is Glyver is Duport, the true heir to the Tansor fortune.

The world Edward inhabits is one of opium, brothels, revenge and murder. This is a suspenseful mystery that needs to be followed to the end for a brilliant conclusion.

Michael Cox has placed various epigraphs at each chapter and section breaks, along with copious footnotes. These quaint footnotes provide brief explanations of terms and locations within the book, for example, “Waterloo Bridge was known as the ‘Bridge of Sighs’ because of the number of suicides who had leaped to their deaths from it.” There is wonderful, thorough detail in the description of the locations, the people, and the era in which this book is set.

There are a few loose ends in this book that may be explained in the sequel, “The Glass of Time”.

I recommend this book for anyone who likes detailed description set in a Victorian style of writing. The multiple genres are: literary, mystery and detective, and historical.
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1 like · like · see review

Aug 18, 2009 Jen3n rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: history, literature, mystery

Hey: I liked this. The premise is that this bound set of papers, the confession in question, was found amongst a large collection of books anonymously bequeathed to Cambridge and marked "fiction?" and detailing the life and times of two men, one destined to kill the other or die trying. There are footnotes written by a Cambridge scholar defining certain words and explaining certain references along with pointing out historical accuracies running along with the story itself, maintaining the cute...more

1 like · like · see review

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About Michael Cox

Michael Andrew Cox was an English biographer, novelist and musician.
He also held the position of Senior Commissioning Editor of reference books for Oxford University Press.

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“For Death is the meaning of night;
The eternal shadow
Into which all lives must fall,
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The Meaning of Night (The Meaning of Night #1)

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