The Asylum - Softcover

Harwood, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0544227727 ISBN 13: 9780544227729

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2014

Synopsis

"Harwood, master of creeping Victorian horror, does it again . . . Twisted in every sense of the word and wonderfully atmospheric."--Booklist

Confused and disoriented, Georgina Ferrars awakens in a small room in Tregannon House, a remote asylum in England. She has no memory of the past few weeks. The doctor, Maynard Straker, tells her that she admitted herself under the name Lucy Ashton, then suffered a seizure. When she insists he has mistaken her for someone else, Dr. Straker sends a telegram to her uncle, who replies that Georgina Ferrars is at home with him in London: "Your patient must be an imposter." Suddenly her voluntary confinement becomes involuntary. Who is the woman in her uncle's house? Georgina's perilous quest to free herself takes us from a cliffside cottage on the Isle of Wight to the secret passages of Tregannon House and into a web of hidden family ties on which her survival depends.

"Redolent with a sense of foreboding . . . This gothic tale will sweep you up into the very heart of Victorian England. A splendid read!"--Historical Novel Society, Editors' Choice

"A richly textured . . . [and] masterfully constructed narrative . . . Readers are guaranteed a thoroughly diverting time in Harwood's not-to-be-trusted hands."--The Independent (UK)

"The crisp prose and twisty plot will encourage many to read this in one sitting."--Publishers Weekly

About this title

Review:

"A deliciously spooky pastiche of the high and low Gothic traditions and the tender heroines who live and die by them."
--New York Times Book Review

"Harwood, master of creeping Victorian horror, does it again. . . Twisted in every sense of the word and wonderfully atmospheric, this dark psychological tale shocks by degree until truth of a sort is revealed in a style similar to that of Joanne Harris' Sleep, Pale Sister and D.J. Taylor's Kept."
--Booklist

"Harwood evokes Charles Palliser and Louis Bayard in his engrossing third stand-alone Victorian thriller. . . The crisp prose and twisty plot will encourage many to read this in one sitting."
--Publishers Weekly

"With Harwood's beguiling pastiche The Asylum, we're once again in a contemporary version of the Victorian Gothic mystery, with a lineage that stretches back to Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White and beyond. Though it's not a comfortable place for the beleaguered heroine, readers are guaranteed a thoroughly diverting time in Harwood's not-to-be-trusted hands."

--The Independent (UK)

Book Description:

I am Miss Georgina Ferrars, of Gresham’s Yard, London. I am. I swear that I am. And I shall prove it.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0544227727
• ISBN 13: 9780544227729
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272