A wonderful, immaculately reserached novel that brings Dr Johnson, his friends and his times to life.A wonderful, immaculately reserached novel that brings Dr Johnson, his friends and his times to life.Beryl Bainbridge’s novel is a masterly evocation of the last years of Dr Johnson, arguably Britian’s greatest Man of Letters. The time is the 1770s and 1780s and Johnson, having completed his life’s major work (he compiled the first ever Dictionary of the English language) is running an increasingly choatic life. Torn between his strict morality and his undeclared passion for Mrs Thrale, the wife of an old friend, According to Queeney reveals one of Britain’s most wonderful characters in all his wit and glory. Above all, though, this is a story of love and friendship and brilliantly narrated by Queeney, Mrs Thrale’s daughter, looking back over her life.‘It is hard to think of anyone now writing who understands the human heart as Beryl Bainbridge does, or exposes its workings with more tenderness’ The Times‘Duncan is memorable as the tetchy and spirited Mrs Thrale’. Sunday TimesDame Beryl Margaret Bainbridge was born in November 1932 in Liverpool. After some time as an actress she turned her hand to writing, winning the Whitbread Awards prize for best novel twice, and being nominated for the Booker Prize five times. Several of her books have been turned into films. Bainbridge died in July 2010.A few of Johnson’s quotes:• Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures• No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money• When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life
Publicat de: HarperCollins Publishers