The Great Stink - Softcover

Clark, Clare

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0156030888 ISBN 13: 9780156030885

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2006

Synopsis

Clare Clark's critically acclaimed The Great Stink "reeks of talent" (The Washington Post Book World) as it vividly brings to life the dark and mysterious underworld of Victorian London. Set in 1855, it tells the story of William May, an engineer who has returned home to London from the horrors of the Crimean War. When he secures a job trans-forming the city's sewer system, he believes that he will be able to find salvation in the subterranean world beneath the city. But the peace of the tunnels is shattered by a murder, and William is implicated as the killer. Could he truly have committed the crime? How will he bring the truth above-ground?

With richly atmospheric prose, The Great Stink combines fact and fiction to transport readers into London's putrid past, and marks the debut of a remarkably talented writer in the tradition of the very best historical novelists.

About this title

Product Description:

Rare Book

Review:

PRAISE FOR THE GREAT STINK

"Clark's triumph is that she makes us see and smell everything we politely pretend not to, and she even manages to give the miasma its own kind of beauty . . . The book is literally breathtaking."--The New York Times Book Review

"The Great Stink is a trove of olfactory poetry . . . a crackerjack historical novel that combines the creepy intrigue of Caleb Carr, the sensory overload of Peter Ackroyd and the academic curiosity of A. S. Byatt."--Los Angeles Times


Crisp, assured, and relentlessly pungent. One does not so much read The Great Stink as smell, hear and taste it.
--Amanda Foreman

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0156030888
• ISBN 13: 9780156030885
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 372