'your Brother Takes Me For A Barbarian, Mr Bowen. But I Assure You, I'm Quite Well Trained.' When Benjamin And Edgar Bowen Embark On A Grand Tour Of Europe, They Are Ready To Meet People Of Quality. They Have Trunks Full Of Powdered Silver Wigs And Matching Suits, A Hunger To Experience The Architectural Wonders Of Ancient Rome And An Ability To Quote Voltaire (at Length). They Will Make Connections And Establish Themselves In High Society, Just As Their Mother Has Planned. But It Soon Becomes Apparent That Their Outfits Are Not Quite The Right Shade Of Grey, Their Smiles Are Too Ready, Their Appreciation Of The Arts Ridiculous. Class, They Learn, Is Not Something That Can Be Studied. Benjamin's True Education Begins When He Meets Horace Lavelle. Beautiful, Charismatic, Seductive, Lavelle Delights In Skewering The Pretensions And Prejudices Of Their Milieu. He Consumes Benjamin's Every Thought. Love Can Transform A Person. Can It Save Them?

Neil Blackmore

London: Hutchinson

Cornerstone

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

FR, 2020

In 1764, Benjamin and his brother are sent on a Grand Tour of Europe by their ambitious mother. Having raised them in the twin holy tenets of the Enlightenment and Englishness, she wants them to make the kind of connections that will ensure the family business flourishes on their return. Instead, Benjamin meets the beautiful and cruel Lavelle, who seduces him and drives the brothers apart. Benjamin's sexual and intellectual obsession with Lavelle - a mad, all-consuming love - unfurls across beautiful locations: Paris, Venice, Naples, Florence and Rome, threatening to overwhelm him until at last, tragedy strikes and a reckoning is forced. This rollicking journey across 1760s Europe is wonderful on the dangerous thrill of first love. Brilliantly skewering pretension and prejudice, it acts as a tragic satire on our own times. Original, darkly funny - and thoroughly intoxicating - it is a relentlessly entertaining read

ix, 301 pages ; 23 cm
"When Benjamin and Edgar Bowen embark on a Grand Tour of Europe, they are ready to meet People of Quality. They have trunks full of powdered silver wigs and matching suits, a hunger to experience the architectural wonders of Ancient Rome and an ability to quote Voltaire (at length). They will make connections and establish themselves in high society, just as their mother has planned. But it soon becomes apparent that their outfits are not quite the right shade of grey, their smiles are too ready, their appreciation of the arts ridiculous. Class, they learn, is not something that can be studied. Benjamin's true education begins when he meets Horace Lavelle. Beautiful, charismatic, seductive, Lavelle delights in skewering the pretensions and prejudices of their milieu. He consumes Benjamin's every thought. Love can transform a person. Can it save them?"--Publisher

'But in the moment of the delusions that love bestows on us, one can convince oneself of almost anything, and indeed I did.' Benjamin and Edgar Bowen have led a privileged, if sheltered, childhood. Now they have come of age, their mother believes they are ready to embark on a Grand Tour of Europe. Their parents intend for them to meet People of Quality and make connections that will enable them to be great successes in society and business. But high society greets the brothers' knowledge of the Enlightenment and their ability to quote Voltaire with amusement and derision. Class is not something that can be learnt. Meeting Horace Lavelle changes everything. Clever, seductive, tempestuous, Lavelle is unlike anyone Benjamin has ever encountered. He challenges all the rules that Benjamin has been taught make a man. Love can transform a person. But can it save them?

Als twee Britse broers in 1763 op een Grand Tour door Europa gaan, wordt de jongste verliefd op een knappe, charismatische maar ook destructieve man. NL-ZmNBD

2023-10-09