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Conceit

by Mary Novik (Goodreads Author)

3.5 of 5 stars 3.50 · rating details · 140 ratings · 39 reviews

"St Paul's cathedral stands like a cornered beast on Ludgate hill, taking deep breaths above the smoke. The fire has made terrifying progress in the night and is closing in on the ancient monument from three directions. Built of massive stones, the cathedral is held to be invincible, but suddenly Pegge sees what the flames covet: the two hundred and fifty feet of scaffoldi...more "St Paul's cathedral stands like a cornered beast on Ludgate hill, taking deep breaths above the smoke. The fire has made terrifying progress in the night and is closing in on the ancient monument from three directions. Built of massive stones, the cathedral is held to be invincible, but suddenly Pegge sees what the flames covet: the two hundred and fifty feet of scaffolding erected around the broken tower. Once the flames have a foothold on the wooden scaffolds, they can jump to the lead roof, and once the timbers burn and the vaulting cracks, the cathedral will be toppled by its own mass, a royal bear brought down by common dogs." (p.9)

It is the Great Fire of 1666. The imposing edifice of St. Paul's Cathedral, a landmark of London since the twelfth century, is being reduced to rubble by the flames that engulf the City.

In the holocaust, Pegge and a small group of men struggle to save the effigy of her father, John Donne, famous love poet and the great Dean of St. Paul's. Making their way through the heat and confusion of the streets, they arrive at Paul's wharf. Pegge's husband, William Bowles, anxiously scans the wretched scene, suddenly realizing why Pegge has asked him to meet her at this desperate spot.

The story behind this dramatic rescue begins forty years before the fire. Pegge Donne is still a rebellious girl, already too clever for a world that values learning only in men, when her father begins arranging marriages for his five daughters, including Pegge. Pegge, however, is desperate to taste the all-consuming desire that led to her parents' clandestine marriage, notorious throughout England for shattering social convention and for inspiring some of the most erotic and profound poetry ever written. She sets out to win the love of Izaak Walton, a man infatuated with her older sister.

Stung by Walton's rejection and jealous of her physically mature sisters, the boyish Pegge becomes convinced that it is her own father who knows the secret of love. She collects his poems, hoping to piece together her parents' history, searching for some connection to the mother she barely knew.

Intertwined with Pegge's compelling voice are those of Ann More and John Donne, telling us of the courtship that inspired some of the world's greatest poetry of love and physical longing. Donne's seduction leads Ann to abandon social convention, risk her father's certain wrath, and elope with Donne. It is the undoing of his career and the two are left to struggle in a marriage that leads to her death in her twelfth childbirth at age thirty-three.

In Donne's final days, Pegge tries, in ways that push the boundaries of daughterly behaviour, to discover the key to unlock her own sexuality. After his death, Pegge still struggles to free herself from an obsession that threatens to drive her beyond the bounds of reason. Even after she marries, she cannot suppress her independence or her desire to experience extraordinary love.

Conceit brings to life the teeming, bawdy streets of London, the intrigue-ridden court, and the lushness of the seventeenth-century English countryside. It is a story of many kinds of love — erotic, familial, unrequited, and obsessive — and the unpredictable workings of the human heart. With characters plucked from the pages of history, Mary Novik's debut novel is an elegant, fully-imagined story of lives you will find hard to leave behind.(less)

Hardcover, 402 pages

Published August 28th 2007 by Doubleday Canada

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Sep 20, 2012 Asma rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-canada, biographical, 52-2012

Updated review: Rereading this novel, I thoroughly enjoyed it, finding even more about the story. This time, I carefully attended to the background of politics and religion. William Bowles, Pegge's husband, the king's royal tailor, is concerned about their trajectory. His family's safety is of importance. He himself takes to the countryside, residing at his estate, Clewer. Besides writing over Donne's sermons and elegies, Pegge is a natural gardener. The wonderful descriptions include winter plu...more Updated review: Rereading this novel, I thoroughly enjoyed it, finding even more about the story. This time, I carefully attended to the background of politics and religion. William Bowles, Pegge's husband, the king's royal tailor, is concerned about their trajectory. His family's safety is of importance. He himself takes to the countryside, residing at his estate, Clewer. Besides writing over Donne's sermons and elegies, Pegge is a natural gardener. The wonderful descriptions include winter plums and other plants. She makes fishing flies from feathers, horsehair, and other natural bits, impressing Izaac Walton whose The Compleat Angler, or the Contemplative Man's Recreation is still read. She prefers the country to the city, but, going to London, preserves John Donne's marble effigy for posterity, takes down his unburnt mummy from a scaffold, and traverses the city at will. She thinks that dancing lessons and self-consciousness are frivolous. Her brothers and sisters do not resemble her in personality. She and Walton prove good literary executors of Donne's writings, although Walton created a too favorable portrait of Donne in "Life of Donne", according to her, and she adds her own thoughts to Donne's papers. There are the theme's of love, childbirth, marriage, death, and living throughout this novel.

Previous Review dated 2010: Mary Novik has written a seventeenth-century historical fiction, at the heart of which is Pegge Donne, one of the poet John Donne's daughters. Significant characters are her poet-priest father, her mother Ann More Donne, her siblings and children, some contemporary luminaries and other persons, and her husband Sir William Bowles. The gist is two generations of the Donnes' domestic lives-- courtship, marriage, childbirth, and dying--amid the backdrop of contemporary English events. Novik's style is sensuous with description yet also raises longing, love, and letters to a spiritual plane. The transition between above and below ground, between this life and the next, is celebrated rather than shunned: Ann Donne opines from under the paved stones of St. Clements; bones and effigies are returned to the life cycle, memories and remnants haunt present generations. Passages, sometimes resemble a prose poem. Highly recommended for literary and history buffs, this book differs in style and theme from Edward Docx's modern fiction THE CALLIGRAPHER, an adaptation of Donne's thirty SONGS AND SONNETS.(less)

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Jan 22, 2009 Bonnie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed-books, recommended, historical-fiction, canadian-author

I am so very happy that Mary was long-listed for the Giller, and that she won the Ethel Wilson for this book. Well-deserved!

I have not read many historical fiction novels, but this didn't really "read" like a typical historical fiction. I read it not only once, but twice -- before it really "came out", and afterwards.

The first time I read it more for the story (although I couldn't not notice the excellent prose), and I read quickly. (Yes, I found it was a page-turner.) The second time I read as...more

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Apr 04, 2009 Shannon (Giraffe Days) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, 2009

17th-century England was no easy time for anyone, including Pegge, second-youngest daughter of the infamous poet and preacher John Donne. A strange girl with a slightly obsessive fascination for her father and a yearning for the kind of love he had with her mother, Ann, before her death several years before, Pegge has fixed her sights on Izaak Walton, a young fisherman the same age as her oldest sister Constance - whom Izaak loves despite Con's dismissive attitude and ambition.

From 1622 until af...more 17th-century England was no easy time for anyone, including Pegge, second-youngest daughter of the infamous poet and preacher John Donne. A strange girl with a slightly obsessive fascination for her father and a yearning for the kind of love he had with her mother, Ann, before her death several years before, Pegge has fixed her sights on Izaak Walton, a young fisherman the same age as her oldest sister Constance - whom Izaak loves despite Con's dismissive attitude and ambition.

From 1622 until after the London fire of 1666 that burned down John Donne's St. Paul's Cathedral where his body rested - and not in his wife's grave as he had always promised - Conceit follows Pegge's journey through life from a young girl to a mature married woman, as well as retelling the story of John and Ann. In fact, Ann tells her side of the story from her grave, with the novel switching several times from third to second person as she speaks her mind directly to her husband, who in several ways betrayed her.

The characters are very much alive, and while I know next to nothing about John Donne or Izaak Walton or Samuel Pepys (who has a small role), or anyone else in the novel, and although the author acknowledges that she "invented joyfully and freely" (you would have to employ creative licence when retelling the intimate lives of people long, long gone), the depth of detail and the quality of the prose render it authentic.

It's hard to describe the quality of the prose, and the tone and feel it conveys - it has the ability to make the story come alive, and yet seem dream-like all at once. There's a great deal of imagery and recurring themes, which hold the novel together more tightly than the actual plot does. Speaking of plot, there isn't really one. It's very character-driven, rather meandering, but lives and breathes through its artful prose. The switch in perspective and voice isn't as strange as it sounds, and it's never hard to follow. Time does jump forward quite suddenly, and I had to plot it by noting how many children Pegge had had and how old they were.

Pegge herself is a very interesting character, quite eccentric and outside the norm, which you really only become aware of when seeing her through her husband William's eyes. He loves her but she's so wrapped up in the story of her parent's all-consuming love (until Ann had too many children and miscarriages and died), that she sometimes seems to think she is Ann.

Like The Nature of Monsters, which was set after the fire, Conceit captures the morbid fascination of a people mesmerised by life and death and all the gruesome, unflattering things that are hidden behind clothes and closed doors. Donne's poetry verged on vulgar, and his sermons were preoccupied with festering flesh and sexual sins. Depravity and innocence are juxtaposed with perfect balance here, neither one tipping the scales. The characters are stripped bare, their foibles, hypocrisies, vanities and conceits laid bare, and it's sometimes hard to find a sympathetic character, especially when their motives remain obscure. Yet that in itself only adds to the vibrancy of the novel, the honesty and voyeuristic perspective.

Conceit is a remarkable novel in its achievement, in its ability to capture the greys of its characters and utilise that Dickensian quality Frye talked about, of creating and writing characters who are so far from reality that they read as more real than if they'd been written less fantastically. The prose is organic, mystical almost, and while it's no conventional book aiming to please, it's worth reading for the historical depth of detail, the exploration of one of England's most famous poets, and for a walk down a new and unfamiliar path if you're willing to let Pegge lead the way.(less)

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Feb 12, 2009 Toni Osborne rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Writing the novel must have been a very challenging and rewarding process for Mary Novik. She has successfully presented a rich old fashion story, centered on the life of Pegge Donne, daughter of love poet John Donne. The principal players: John Donne, his wife Anne More and their daughter Pegge relate alternately their life experiences.

Opening with a spectacular scene in London during the fury of the Great fire, you are immediately plunged into the world of passion, but not ordinary passion, on...more

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Feb 05, 2009 Nicole rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

Conceit (Merriam-Webster)
1 a (1): a result of mental activity: thought (2): individual opinion b: favorable opinion ; especially : excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue
2: a fancy item or trifle
3 a: a fanciful idea b: an elaborate or strained metaphor c: use or presence of such conceits in poetry d: an organizing theme or concept

I’m an enthusiastic historical fiction fan and I especially like medieval fiction, maybe because it is not as popular as other periods, and I’m always loo...more Conceit (Merriam-Webster)
1 a (1): a result of mental activity: thought (2): individual opinion b: favorable opinion ; especially : excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue
2: a fancy item or trifle
3 a: a fanciful idea b: an elaborate or strained metaphor c: use or presence of such conceits in poetry d: an organizing theme or concept

I’m an enthusiastic historical fiction fan and I especially like medieval fiction, maybe because it is not as popular as other periods, and I’m always looking for unique concepts. I’d been to the bookstore numerous times indecisive whether to buy Conceit and I finally gave in because the great cover captivated me. The story is about the famed love John Donne has for his wife Ann, their children and in particular John’s daughter Pegge and her life. On a broader level it is about the many facets of love and death set in the 17th century. I really really wanted to like this book but I just could not warm to it. Normally I read a book within a week no matter how many pages but Conceit took just under two!

The first 75 pages were plodding and confusing…and then I figured out the general direction of the plot and reading became smoother. Conceit was engrossing in a way, that of being a voyeur to disturbing behavior and unable to look away, as if spellbound with witchery. I didn’t mind the gore or rude language (Novik seems to detail every imaginable bodily function and irritating humor of the period), the complex, rambling ideas, and skipping back and forth through time, rather I detested all the characters. The characters were for the most part brash, uncouth, self-involved, superstitious and unlikable. To be blunt I finished the book then threw it across the room. What I have realized about myself is that I need to like the characters to enjoy the story.

But Conceit IS a masterful, authentic debut by Mary Novik and I would recommend it to those who prefer challenging, unique fiction.

As an aside, there were a lot of foreign words I did not know the meaning of and didn’t bother to look up…I would have a dictionary with you reading this book.

http://myobsessionwithbooks.blogspot....

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May 14, 2013 Mary Soderstrom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Almost exactly six years ago, I was lucky enough to have Quill and Quire ask me to review Mary Novik's debut novel Conceit. I was blown away by it, as the following review which I've just rescued from my old files, attests. Now I hear that her novel about Francesco Petrach will be out in August, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

In the meantime, here's my review of Conceit:

How to write a review in 350 words that does justice to Mary Novik’s extraordinary novel Conceit?

Nearly impossib...more Almost exactly six years ago, I was lucky enough to have Quill and Quire ask me to review Mary Novik's debut novel Conceit. I was blown away by it, as the following review which I've just rescued from my old files, attests. Now I hear that her novel about Francesco Petrach will be out in August, and I'm really looking forward to reading it.

In the meantime, here's my review of Conceit:

How to write a review in 350 words that does justice to Mary Novik’s extraordinary novel Conceit?

Nearly impossible, which is probably why the publicist’s bumph veers toward purple prose, making it sound like an overheated historical bodice-ripper. Yes, Novik plunges us into the London of the Great Fire of 1666 as the book opens. Yes, she makes us smell the smoke and feel the heat, just as she shows us, a little later on, the longing that Pegge Donne feels for her first love, Isaak Walton.

The book, in its baldest outline, is pretty simple, too: a family drama with passionate overtones. Dashing young courtier-poet John Donne falls madly in love with Anne Moore, has 12 children with her, and vows to be buried next to her.

But when he becomes dean of St. Paul’s, he decides to be buried there. Pegge resents this decision, yet nevertheless when London burns, Pegge—by now the mother of 12 children herself—rescues Donne’s statue from the cathedral (photo at right.) The book ends with a kind of reconciliation between Pegge and her long-dead father, and between her and her very-much-alive husband. .

But this is far too sketchy Not only does Novik present us with Pegge’s thinking, she also gives us John Donne rationalizing why he won’t spend eternity with Anne, and Anne, who died at 29 after 12 pregnancies, wailing “I know I did not die a natural death. I was slain by love, at far too young an age.” This shifting of point of view can be at times confusing, but the richness of the book makes up for it.

Novik’s descriptions are often startling but very apt: for example, she says that during their father’s long sermons, the Donne children “lounged about in their minds.” In preparing to tell her story Novik obviously has read major texts from the period, from Samuel Pepys’ diary to Donne’s own poems and sermons. But the book is about “my seventeenth century,” she says, adding that she has “invented joyfully and freely.”

The result is as delightful as Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and as erudite and readable as A.S. Byatt’s Possession.(less)

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Aug 28, 2011 Dot rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was drawn into this book immediately as the first chapter is set during the Great Fire of London in 1666. Mary Novik paints a clear picture of the panic and confusion and uses it to introduce her main character, Pegge Dunne as she struggles to rescue the statue of her father, the great John Donne, from St Paul's Cathedral as it burns to the ground.

While Pegge is the main character in the book, the story is is dominated by her flamboyant father who in his early life was a poet best known for hi...more

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Jul 17, 2011 Samantha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Conceit is a good summer read light but still intriguing. That being said this feels like two separate books. One half is the twilight years the poet John Donne mixed in with the memories of the courting of his wife, Ann and the burgeoning adulthood of his daughter, Pegge. Once he dies though the focus is switched to Pegge and her husband, William Bowles focusing on their relationship. I really liked that all the characters were flawed in some way but it felt under developed. There was more to e...more

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Jan 09, 2009 Graham added it

17th century social brutality, especially for women, but the men suffer losses too, sometimes stupidly. The novel makes me glad I came along later, but I was riveted to the "present" of the past. Vivid portrayals of historic ones like Jonne Donne, his daughter, his wife, Samuel Pepys- from inside their skulls. "Skull/s" is a key word in this book, but the book's beauty is in the (unexpected for me) passions of flowers, fish and fabric. Then the London fire of 1666 and its effect as a pair of boo...more

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Dec 22, 2010 Ruth Seeley rated it 4 of 5 stars

What is it they say? Well-behaved women are rarely remembered? While Pegge Donne, John and Ann's daughter, is the main character of this wonderful novel, she is her parents' child both literally and figuratively. There are moments of hilarity here, as when Pegge's husband consoles himself that he's protected her from something she shouldn't see - when in fact Pegge is the one who's removed her father's skeleton from its perch among the ruins of St. Paul's after London's Great Fire, bone by bone....more

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Mar 21, 2009 Lorina Stephens rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mary Novik's 17th century novel, Conceit is a beautifully written story about the daughter of the famed poet, John Donne.

Almost tragic in her obsession with her parent's legendary love-affair, the protagonist, Pegge Donne, explores the depths of passion, betrayal, sexuality and her own attempt to navigate a confusing and perilous era in England, not only politically, but socially.

Novik's handling of the subject matter is with a cool authorial voice, almost clinical, a striking, sometimes distu...more

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Mar 13, 2008 Allan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Awesome. If you love historical fiction--or just love a good read--this is for you.

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Jan 27, 2011 Monica added it

http://www.monniblog.com/2008/07/conc...

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Feb 14, 2010 Lady Ethereal Butterfly rated it 4 of 5 stars

Conceit by Mary Novik was an absorbing novel, set in 17th Century England, about Pegge Donne, the daughter of poet John Donne. I was immediately drawn into the story by the use of exciting, captivating plot twists. The story jumped back and forth between different characters and their lives, which kept me involved. The writing itself was very beautiful, almost poetic, and had a pleasing fluidity. Conceit had a lingering sensuality that stayed with me page after page. I was impressed by the fluid...more

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Aug 01, 2011 Alan Bradley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mary Novik breathes new life into the dust that lies beneath "Old St. Paul's".

Like Izaak Walton and Dr. Samuel Johnson before her, she explores the life - and death - of John Donne, that curious clergyman whose effigy still stands wrapped in his shroud, even though the church that once contained it was long ago made ashes.

Her book joins the ranks of those select few authors - Peter Ackroyd, for one - whose books convey an abiding love of London, and what lies beneath.

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Jul 25, 2011 Oleksandra rated it 2 of 5 stars

Bought this at an airport on my way to France but only read a few pages before I got back home. Picked it up again shortly thereafter and finished it with no particular enthusiasm.

As soon as one character or another began to pull me into the story the author abruptly changed directions or focus making it difficult to truly immerse myself in the book. Being a fan of historical fiction I did not find that this book painted a believable enough picture of everyday life in 17th century London.

Altho...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Diane rated it 3 of 5 stars

Wow! The author knows a LOT about John Donne. Did she do all that research for this book or make use of leftover musings whilst doing academic research on the man and his writing? By all standards he was a very passionate but divided person and even more so when viewed through 21st century eyes. The author uses some beautiful imagery but the plot is rather meandering and the reader is left wondering just what she was trying to say.

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Jan 08, 2013 Cecile rated it 2 of 5 stars

I had hoped to be more drawn in by the story and the characters, having loved the poetry of Donne and the metaphysical poets. Unfortunately, the story seemed to drag for me. I never really did like any of the characters and just didn't care about their circumstances. Too bad.

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Oct 13, 2008 Julia rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book had potential to be good...early 17th century England, the story of a young girl who is the daughter of the Dean of the big church who dies and she feels the need to keep his poetry alive yada yada yada. Didn't always know what was going on.
As for reading in bed, I don't do much of because I can't get comfortable. I usually read at night at one end of the sofa in the family room under a pole lamp. Then I go to bed. I also read alot at the gym on the stationary bike. I find I can do th...more

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Jul 04, 2010 Whimsicality added it

I didn't really like this book; too confusing, muddled, and I didn't think it was very well thought-out. It seemed to move incredibly slowly at one place and at the speed of light another.

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Feb 09, 2013 Paulette Heppner rated it 4 of 5 stars

Portrait of John Donne through the eyes of his daughter, Pegge Donne. Interesting view of life in seventeenth-century London.

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Feb 05, 2009 K.M. added it

I know Mary from the UBC Booming Ground program. Conceit was long-listed for the Giller Prize. Congrats Mary!

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Jun 07, 2009 Heath rated it 5 of 5 stars

A great read. This is a book you tell your friends about and they tell their friends about.

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Aug 29, 2009 Staci marked it as to-read

http://freshinkbooks.blogspot.com/200...

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Apr 15, 2013 Mary is currently reading it · (Review from the author) · review of another edition

Shelves: favourite-books

My novel Conceit, which is set in 17th-century London, is about the daughter of the English poet John Donne. There have been many reviews on Goodreads, and group discussions can be read at
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5... and
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_... For more information, please visit http://www.marynovik.com

Cheers, Mary Mary Novik

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Jun 02, 2010 Nafiza rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, canadian-authors

There is a certain eternalness about the characters who are carved so sharply, so beautifully from the words that flow together as poetry. This was a beautiful book - it is a classic. And I am entirely enamored by the world created by Novik. The story of Pegge, who might have been Cinderella in some other story, who dreams and wants as feverishly as her genius father. Her genius has no audience, and her desires are largely unspoken. However, at the end of it all, she finds fulfillment. And love.

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Apr 06, 2010 Susan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Transporting

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Dec 07, 2011 Sherry rated it 3 of 5 stars

Im loving this so far...what is it about the 16th and 17th century thats got me so hooked lately? This is the third book in a row for me!

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Aug 19, 2011 K.P. Vorenberg rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a captivating read. The author's historical research coupled with her amazing imagination made this reading experience a most special one.

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Aug 09, 2009 Cynthia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Loved this book. The main characters are so eccentric and passionate. The historical context is really informative and so well written. I loved how the author develops the intricacies of the relationship between John and his daughter Pegge, and how their relationship impacts on her relationship with her husband and life long love. The prose is wonderful - I had a hard time putting it down. Happy to read yet another smart, well writen book by a Canadian author.

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topics	posts	views	last activity
The Imprinted Lif...: Overall	4	7	Nov 11, 2012 12:14pm
The Imprinted Lif...: pages 261-end "Tongues 1631-1667"	12	6	Sep 20, 2012 05:34pm
The Imprinted Lif...: pages 109-260 "Death's Duel 1631"	20	8	Sep 10, 2012 01:50pm
The Imprinted Lif...: pages 19-108 "Yearnings 1622-1631"	11	9	Aug 26, 2012 09:49pm
The Imprinted Lif...: pages 1 -18, "The City 1666"	6	6	Aug 20, 2012 09:29am
The Imprinted Lif...: The Fictional Biography of Pegge Donne: Pre-Reading	6	13	Aug 17, 2012 09:10am

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About Mary Novik

Hi Everybody,

Goodreads now has the cover image for my new novel Muse, which will be published by Doubleday August 2013. Set in 14th-century Avignon, Muse is the first person story of Solange Le Blanc, who became entangled in a love triangle with Francesco Petrarch and Laura, and later caught the eye of Pope Clement VI. This period was called the Babylonian Captivity, because the popes lived in Avi...more Hi Everybody,

Goodreads now has the cover image for my new novel Muse, which will be published by Doubleday August 2013. Set in 14th-century Avignon, Muse is the first person story of Solange Le Blanc, who became entangled in a love triangle with Francesco Petrarch and Laura, and later caught the eye of Pope Clement VI. This period was called the Babylonian Captivity, because the popes lived in Avignon instead of in Rome. If you've been following Pope Benedict XVI's resignation, you may be interested to learn that the last papal resignation happened in 1415, putting an end to the Avignon papacy.

Thank you to the many goodreaders who have added Muse to their "to read" shelf! The publication date (August 13, 2013) will be here soon. In the meantime, I am adding information about Muse to my website, http://www.marynovik.com I've posted lots about my first novel Conceit, which is the story of Pegge, the daughter of the English poet John Donne, a contemporary of Shakespeare. I've been passionate about books all my life and was inspired to write Conceit when I visited St. Paul's Cathedral in London and discovered that John Donne's effigy was the only one that survived the Great Fire of 1666. In the US, Conceit is available at amazon.com, ISBN-13: 978-0385662062

The Goodreads group, The Imprinted Life: True and Fictional Biographies, read Conceit from August 20 to September 16, 2012. It was lots of fun, and the discussion can be read at http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_... What made this so amazing is that Asma, the moderator, did wonderful summaries of each chapter of the whole novel! In August 2011, the Book Haven group read Conceit and that discussion is also available, http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/5....

I feel very fortunate that Conceit was named one of The Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade by Canada Reads. It was also longlisted for the Giller prize and won the Ethel Wilson Prize. Goodreaders have been very generous in reviewing Conceit. Dana Huff posted a lovely review at http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_.... I'd also like to thank Margaret Donsbach for including Conceit in her Best Historical Novels list, http://www.historicalnovels.info/Best.... UK bookseller Catherine Hawley kindly included Conceit in her best ten books of the last ten years, http://juxtabook.typepad.com/books/20... Thanks also to Eric Forbes for the in-depth interview he did with me at The Book Addict's Guide to Good Books (http://goodbooksguide.blogspot.com/20...)

Everyone has been so wonderfully supportive, I feel very blessed. I'm enjoying talking to new friends on Goodreads and can hardly wait to get your feedback on Muse!
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Quotes from Conceit

“What do you most wish for, Izzy?"
"Herbs and salads, and fish straight from the river. A man needs no more than such pleasures.” — 2 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://gr-assets.com/book/show/446513.Conceit?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327991332l/446513.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://gr-assets.com/book/show/446513.Conceit?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Conceit by Mary Novik[/url]

Conceit

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