"Robert Merivel is one of the great imaginative creations in English literature of the past 50 years. So does he still have something to say to us in 2012? Resoundingly, yes." - The Observer (UK) "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. "Richly marbled with intelligence, compassion and compelling characters, leavened with flourishes of lyricism and and attractive tolerance towards human frailties." - The Times (UK) "Tremain's latest will appeal to sophisticated readers of historical fiction who appreciate a richly painted setting enlivened by an intriguingly empathetic portrait of Charles II and an all-too-human hero - passionate, paradoxical, self-destructive, and infinitely sympathetic." - Library Journal
"Tremain's sequel can be read as a stand-alone, but readers may struggle to understand many of the events the main character alludes to in the narrative." - Kirkus Reviews "If something seems lacking, that may only be in comparison with the first novel's unflagging inventiveness and its film adaptation's unrestrained opulence, and from Tremain's focus on the Restoration's sadder, waning days, with both Merivel and Charles realizing how short of their former promise their lives have fallen." - Publishers Weekly
Merivel is Everyman - and he speaks directly to us down the centuries. A big-hearted rogue who loves his daughter, his country house and the English King. He tries to be diligent, but constantly backslides into laugher and laziness.
But the lady, a clever botanist, leads Merivel deliciously on - until her jealous husband bursts in with duelling pistols.Īs he narrates the picaresque journey, Merivel gets into all sorts of scrapes he is torn between enjoying himself and making something of his life, through medicine and the study of science. Switzerland, by contrast, is perhaps a little too comfortable. Versailles - all glitter in front and squalor behind - is a fiasco: Merivel is forced to share an attic (and a chamber pot) with a Dutch clock-maker while attempting to sustain himself on peas and jam and water from the fountains.
Robert Merivel, courtier to Charles II is no longer a young man - but off he goes to France in search of the Sun King and to Switzerland in pursuit of a handsome woman.
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