Poor Things: Episodes from the Early Life of Archibald McCandless M.D. Scottish Public Health Officer |
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By Harcourt
Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780151730766
ISBN: 0151730768
Label: Harcourt
Manufacturer: Harcourt
Number Of Pages: 317
Publication Date: 1993-03
Publisher: Harcourt
Studio: Harcourt |
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Quality writing, exceptional visual presentation, 2000-05-14
As usual with Gray, the design is superlative.
Fascinating and intelligent text, 2000-05-08
Fascinating, intelligent and entertaining. These are just some of the conclusions that I have come to in the year since I first read Poor Things. Is Baxter a man or a creation himself?Why does he have such bizarre eating habits? Similarly, is Bella quite the woman she believes herself to be? What happened to her daughter? Why can she not write using vowels? How does she learn to relate to the world around her? This is a very clever re-write of Shelly's Frankenstein, itself a text that is very concerned with issues of language and how we aquire it.That, however, is not all it is. It's also a really good romp around such key areas of examination such as class divide,feminist issues and Empire in the Victorian world of the Industrial Revolution .You be the detective sifting through the authors 'found' collection of journals and letters ( a classic Victorian writing device). Enjoy the artwork and take time afterwards to ponder what you have read. How can you ignore a novel in which the main female character (Bella) turns a noted philanderer into a Bible-bashing lunatic as a result of her insatiable nymphomania? I'm still thinking about what I've read and that doesn't happen often with me. A modern classic!
Yuck!, 2000-04-28
Highly pretentious! A ridiculously stupid main character set within an even stupider plot! This novel takes itself too seriously from cover to cover (and, indeed, even the cover illustration is ludicrous). Its would-be originality is overshadowed by the fact that the plot and the meaning are in their hundreth reincarnation. Its sinister carefreeness and disturbing images all attempt and fail what Huxley so elegantly communicated to us the good part of a century ago. Save your time -- it is a big book!
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