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Duncker, Patricia James Miranda Barry ISBN 13: 9780330371698

James Miranda Barry - Softcover

 
9780330371698: James Miranda Barry
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At the turn of the nineteenth century, ten-year-old James Miranda Barry enrolled as a medical student in Edinburgh, the start of a glorious career as a military surgeon. Across the Empire, Barry achieved fame not only as a brilliant physician, but also a legendary duellist and a celebrated social figure. But James Miranda Barry was also a woman. Her greatest achievement of all had been to 'pass' for a man for more than fifty years.

Patricia Duncker's novel tells Barry's story for the first time, in a richly inventive and entertaining tale of dark family secrets, adultery, questioned paternity and colonial history. It confirms her rare talent as a writer of profound ideas and immense storytelling power.

'A miracle of a book that is richly atmospheric and gains the murky excitement of a Victorian thriller ' Sunday Times

'A marvellous work . . . superbly imagined and flamboyantly written' Beryl Bainbridge

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Review:
Patricia Duncker's third book is an elegant exploration of the way gender and identity shape a life. The starring role is given to James Miranda Barry, a 19th century society figure, who enrolled as a student at Edinburgh and carved out an illustrious medical career on three continents. Nothing too strange about that, except that James Miranda Barry lived life as a man but was actually a woman.

Duncker has created "an imaginative exploration" of the real Barry's life, adjusting facts and adding figures to transform a story of love and adventure into a masque of sexual identity, where the hero is really the leading lady and the love interest is a kitchen maid, turned actress, who relishes "the breeches parts" in Shakespeare's plays.

It's an enthralling, strange tale, peopled with actors and soldiers, artists and revolutionary generals. Illicit liaisons, adultery, confused paternity, colonial history and family secrets provide the transgressive background to Barry's disorientating transformation into someone who was "neither man nor woman but partook of both", who combined "a woman's delicacy and grace" with "the courage and skill of a man."

Duncker's literary skills are equally adept and disorienting. Her prose is cool and clean, shot through with lush descriptions of flowers and landscape (her decadence seems to be saved for the glories of nature). Although Alice Jones the kitchen maid actress can proclaim to Barry: "You are who the world says you are. And the world says you're a man" but with Duncker it isn't quite that simple. Barry's manly charade is played out with the subtle, startling awareness of his (sic) womanly identity. It makes for a very sophisticated narrative where all surfaces are deceptive and all experiences are dual. --Eithne Farry

Review:
Patricia Duncker should be made a DBE, elected to the Acad?mie Fran?aise and have a statue erected in the main square of her home town (Louis de Berni?res ?A marvellous work of faction, superbly imagined and flamboyantly written? Beryl Bainbridge ?It informs and entertains. It?s that rare thing among contemporary novels, a rip-roaring tale told with panache and as such it?s hugely enjoyable? Spectator)

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  • PublisherPicador
  • Publication date2003
  • ISBN 10 033037169X
  • ISBN 13 9780330371698
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages384
  • Rating
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Good. At the turn of the nineteenth century, ten-year-old James Miranda Barry enrolled as a medical student in Edinburgh, the start of a glorious career as a military surgeon. Across the Empire, Barry achieved fame not only as a brilliant physician, but also a legendary duellist and a celebrated social figure. But James Miranda Barry was also a woman. Her greatest achievement of all had been to 'pass' for a man for more than fifty years. Patricia Duncker's novel tells Barry's story for the first time, in a richly inventive and entertaining tale of dark family secrets, adultery, questioned paternity and colonial history. It confirms her rare talent as a writer of profound ideas and immense storytelling power. 'A miracle of a book that is richly atmospheric and gains the murky excitement of a Victorian thriller ' Sunday Times 'A marvellous work . . . superbly imagined and flamboyantly written' Beryl Bainbridge. The book has been read but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact and the cover is intact. Some minor wear to the spine. Seller Inventory # GOR001437860

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