I finished this book a few days back. I had started reading it in 2004 and was already halfway through, when I came upon what I thought was a flaw in the plot (the part where Syme challenges the Marquis to a duel). So I threw it down and never finished it.
Before I picked this one up again, I was (and still am) halfway through this book, "Everyone Worth Knowing". Before that, I read "Shopaholic and Sister", which was all light-hearted, entertaining and funny. And before that it was "HP and the Deathly Hallows", which I realized I had totally outgrown but had to read just so I could say, "I read 'em all!"
So, basically, I overdosed on the commercial books a little and felt I needed some real quality.
Some rich language.
Some pomp (as in "pompous") and haughtiness (as in "haughty").
This time around, the storyline just ran and ran, and I had to keep up. I was quite amused at the part where I'd thought the story was flawed and realized it was all my lack of patience back then.
It has been a most engaging, entertaining, suspenseful, funny, delightful visual and psychological journey, this book.
To Edmund Clerihew Bentley:
A cloud was on the mind of men
And wailing went the weather,
Yea, a sick cloud upon the soul
When we were boys together.
Science announced nonentity
And art admired decay;
The world was old and ended:
But you and I were gay;
Round us in antic order
Crippled vices came-
Lust that had lost its laughter,
Fear that had lost its shame.
Like the white lock of Whistler,
That lit our aimless gloom,
Men showed their own white feather
As proudly as a plume.
Life was a fly that faded,
And death a drone that stung;
The world was very old indeed
When you and I were young.
(excerpt)
G. K. C.
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