From the Bookshelf of Reading with Style…

Restoration

Rose Tremain

Start date: December 1, 2014

Finish date: February 28, 2015

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Nov 10, 2014 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1001-authors-not-list-book, library, 5-star-reads, awards-man-booker

First paragraph:

Look at me. Without my periwig, I am an affront to neatness. My hair (what is left of it) is the colour of sand and wiry as hogs' bristles; my ears are of uneven size; my forehead is splattered with freckles; my nose, which of course my wig can't conceal, however low I wear it, is unceremoniously flat, as if I had been hit at birth.

And I knew I was going to like this.

The prose tends to be quite formal. Tremain has written this in such a way to help the reader feel with the times ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Nov 04, 2016 Rosemary rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Robert Merivel is a young medical student in London in the early years of the reign of Charles II – the glamorous ‘merry monarch’. By chance Merivel becomes an amusement to the king, and in time is chosen to be the husband (in name only) of Charles’s latest mistress. An estate in the country is his reward. Unfortunately he becomes smitten with his ‘wife’, which was not the idea at all, and this leads to a new and challenging chapter in his life.

Robert is a lovely character because he is so charm ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Nov 19, 2014 Joanna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: rws-2015-winter, audiobooks, historical-fiction, 2014-read

This was historical comedic fiction. The main character was surprisingly interesting and developed over the course of the book in a believable and lovable way from a shallow court onlooker to a more thoughtful adult. The historical setting was believable and detailed and made the book thoroughly enjoyable. Reading about the medical beliefs of the time was particularly interesting and I think the author did a fair job keeping with the beliefs appropriate for the setting (e.g., whether or not spon ...more

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