Items related to Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution

Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution - Hardcover

 
9780670891283: Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
The late 18th century. When the Byronic Harry Peake is disfigured in a tragic accident, he and his daughter, Martha, are forced to move from the wild coasts of Cornwall to the dank streets of London. Here they live in a rough hewn harmony until Harry's tortured soul grows dangerously unruly, forcing Martha to flee - first to the asylum of a sadistic English nobleman, then to the rebellion soaked shores of America. Finally it appears Martha might find real contentment, but can she change the course of her own tragic destiny? An utterly gripping, beautifully written and haunting masterwork.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:
"It is a black art, the writing is history, is it not?" So begins Patrick McGrath's gripping novel, Martha Peake, that takes the reader back into the heady revolutionary days of London and America in the 1770s. The story begins in the early 19th century, with the young Ambrose Tree paying a visit to his dying uncle William, Lord of the forbidding Drogo Hall, former residence of "the great anatomist Lord Drogo". Assuming that he is to inherit his uncle's estate, Ambrose instead finds himself drawn into his uncle's extraordinary story of Harry Peake and his headstrong young daughter, Martha Peake.

Harry, "to whom Nature in her folly gave the soul of a smuggler, and the tongue of a poet", is a Cornish smuggler, horrifically mutilated in a fire that kills his wife and disperses his children. Only the brave little Martha stands by her father, and follows him to London, where he becomes the "Cripplegate Monster". Harry recites his poetry and displays his hideously deformed body in the taverns and stews of London's underworld, but soon comes to the apparently sinister attentions of Lord Drogo, who "wanted him for his Museum of Anatomy". As father and daughter are inextricably drawn into Drogo's world, Harry turns to drink, catastrophically abusing Martha and sending her fleeing to America, where she becomes tragically embroiled in the struggle for independence from England. However, as the novel reaches its shocking climax, Ambrose gradually realises that the fate of both father and daughter is much closer to home than he can ever imagine.

Martha Peake is a wonderful story of "sacrifice and abomination and heroism and resolve and victory", a compelling and intelligent novel in the best 19th-century tradition of Dickens, whose literary ghost haunts the pages as powerfully as that of the memorable figure of Harry Peake and his tragic daughter. --Jerry Brotton

Review:
"An uncommon storyteller . . . . McGrath demonstrates his trademark ability to probe the layers of the human psyche." -San Francisco Chronicle

"Unputdownable." -The Washington Post

"A sweeping mytho-historical novel par excellence . . . ." -Minneapolis Star Tribune

"[Martha Peake] has rare qualities of power and urgency. . . . [Readers] are carried along by the eloquence and the energy and the brilliantly managed narrative pace." -The New York Times Book Review

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherViking
  • Publication date2000
  • ISBN 10 0670891282
  • ISBN 13 9780670891283
  • BindingHardcover
  • Edition number1
  • Number of pages352
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780375701313: Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution (Vintage Contemporaries)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780375701313
Publisher: Vintage, 2002
Softcover

  • 9780375500817: Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution

    Random..., 2000
    Hardcover

  • 9782070426249: Martha Peake: A42624 (Folio)

    Gallimard, 2003
    Pocket Book

  • 9780140291391: Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution

    Penguin, 2001
    Softcover

  • 9780141001098: Martha Peake: A Novel of the Revolution

    Penguin, 2001
    Softcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

Patrick McGrath
Published by Viking, London (2000)
ISBN 10: 0670891282 ISBN 13: 9780670891283
New Hardcover First Edition Signed Quantity: 1
Seller:
Fiction First
(Congleton, United Kingdom)

Book Description Hardcover. Condition: New. Dust Jacket Condition: New. First Edition. A fine unread 1st impression in a fine dustwrapper. Signed by the Author on the title page. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 002890

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
£ 18
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: £ 5.40
Within United Kingdom
Destination, rates & speeds