Merivel

Reviews

“What ultimately makes the book such a joy is simply being in Merivel’s company. His narration is by turns rueful, comic, despairing, and joyful; but it’s always bursting with life, always good-hearted—and always entirely loveable.”

“Robert Merivel is one of the great imaginative creations in English literature of the past fifty years. [Merivel is] as rich and as dazzling as its predecessor—steeped in wise and witty reflection on the great mysteries of life, and the timeless, futile hopes and follies.”

“Richly marbled with intelligence, compassion, and compelling characters, leavened with flourishes of lyricism and an attractive tolerance towards human frailties.”

“When he appeared in 1989, Merivel was truly the man of the Thatcherite moment, an individualistic, hedonistic creature who held up a mirror to his audience. So does he still have something to say to us in 2012? Resoundingly, yes.”

“Tremain’s control of her character and her reflective but often dramatic unfolding of events are impressive acts of authorial ventriloquism, in which she gives a nod to the great diarists of that era but carries off her own man’s story with wit, grace, and originality…She not only effortlessly sustains momentum and mood, but brings the novel to as near a perfect ending as one could wish.”

“In a droll tone, Sean Barrett delivers the fictional autobiography of Robert Merivel, physician to kings, as he reflects on his life from the mid- to the late 1600s…As Barrett recounts the quotidian dealings and events of the doctor’s life, his fluid performance draws the listener into Merivel’s story.”

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