Tennyson's Gift : Signed : First printing

Truss, Lynne

ISBN 10: 0241135214 / ISBN 13: 9780241135211

Published by Hamish Hamilton, London, United Kingdom, 1996

About this Item

True first British printing (full print run includes '1'). With original unclipped jacket (£16.00). Signed by the author in blue ink directly to title page without dedication. Jacket has minor patchy edge/shelf wear, the odd small crease/rub to edges, minor pushing/rubbing to head/tail of spine, the odd very small mark, little fading to spine and a little pushing/bumping to corners (which has resulted in tiny loss/tiny tears) in a couple of places. Boards are near fine with a little pushing/bumping to a couple of corners and minor pushing/rubbing to head/tail of spine. Pages are clean and the binding is tight. Pages are tanned (due to quality of paper used). No other internal faults. All books described honestly and accurately. Paypal accepted.

Seller Inventory # 008562

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Tennyson's Gift : Signed : First printing
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton, London, United Kingdom
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241135214
• ISBN 13: 9780241135211
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

This is a comical novel based on some real events that happened on the Isle of Wight in the summer of 1864, revolving around Tennyson, Ellen Terry, Julia Margaret Cameron and Edward Lear. The book examines the fictional relationships and the love triangles that develop between these individuals.

Review

Farce is one of the hardest literary forms to bring off: in Tennyson's Gift Lynne Truss manages the correct combination of inventiveness, planning and energy. All of her historical figures have fixed ideas that make them act against their own best interests--Tennyson is paranoid about reviews and photographs and Lewis Carroll is a snob fascinated by photography and small girls; the painter Watts agonises about past betrayals while ignoring his young actress wife Ellen Terry.

This is all the more a tour-de-force because Truss knows her material well enough to make much of the comic exaggeration come from things that were actually the case--the Tennysons spent their time on the Isle of Wight desperately hoping for a royal visit. She adds to the mix a phrenologist with an obnoxious child and a writer of anonymous letters, so that the sections of this novel continually build up comic intensity.

Most of the comedy here comes from excellent structure and timing and only in part from our preparedness to view eminent Victorians with the condescension of hindsight; this is an extravaganza with its roots in good sense and a fascination with the famous dead as they actually were. --Roz Kaveney