Albion's Story [Paperback]

Kate Grenville (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 17, 1996

In this "startling, fasciniating, disturbing" (Library Journal) companion to Lilian's Story, Kate Grenville takes on a daunting challenge: to imagine, from the inside out, how an apparently respectable Victorian gentleman can persuade himself that he has a right, perhaps even a "manly" duty to rape any woman under his control: his shopgirls, his servants, his wife, even his daughter.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A decade after her award-winning Lilian's Story-which portrayed a disturbed young woman who has been raped by her father-Australian novelist Grenville presents a dark follow-up told from the perspective of the sexually abusive father.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Australian Grenville (Joan Makes History, LJ 11/15/88) takes us deep into the frighteningly twisted mind of Albion Gidley Singer. Born in the latter part of the 19th century, the only son of a successful merchant, Albion grows from a fat, awkward child to a puffed-up misogynist. He is fascinated by women but also violently repelled by them. Upon his father's death, Albion takes over the business, marries and fathers two children, and considers himself a successful "family man." The reader knows otherwise. Albion's obsession with his large, homely, bright, and determined daughter Lilian ("a chip off the old block") cannot be reconciled with his delusions about women. When he ultimately rapes her ("You want it," I reminded her. "You have wanted it for years"), she descends into madness, but Albion sees no fault in himself. Startling, fascinating, disturbing, this novel is recommended for most collections.
Ann H. Fisher, Radford PL, Va.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 375 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (January 17, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156002418
• ISBN-13: 978-0156002417
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,877,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kate Grenville (kategrenville.com) was born in Sydney, Australia. She's published eight books of fiction, including the multiple prize-winners 'The Secret River', 'The Lieutenant', 'The Idea of Perfection', and 'Lilian's Story'. She's also published three books about the writing process that are classic texts for Creative Writing classes, and a memoir about the research and writing of 'The Secret River'.

Grenville writes about Australia, but her themes are universal: love, violence, and survival. Her characters are often inspired by real historical characters: her own nineteenth century convict ancestor, an early Australian settler; a bag-lady on the streets of 1950s Sydney who quotes Shakespeare for a living; a soldier in the Sydney of 1788 who shares an extraordinary friendship of tenderness and respect with a young Aboriginal girl.

Grenville's international prizes include the Orange Award, the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and a shortlisting for the Man Booker Prize. Her books have been published all over the world and translated into many languages, and two have been made into feature films.

Learn more about Kate Grenville, her books, and how to get hold of them, at kategrenville.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Albion Unzipped, April 28, 2001

By 

Trisha (Plano, TX United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Albion's Story (Paperback)

An unsparing, fascinating portrait of a hollow man who belittles and rapes the women in his life, sneers at those men who have the very thing he most desires and fears: true intimacy--both with the women in their lives and with their fellow human beings; and who must fill himself up with facts in a vain attempt to validate his existence and worth. Instead of a hidden, aging portrait in an attic which allows the main character to remain in a state of youth, Grenville gives us a library which allows the main character to assemble an identity of sorts from all the books he reads. As long as he keeps reading and digesting information, Albion Singer will exist. Uncomfortable in his own skin, he attempts to mold himself into the ideal man through his constant seach for facts. Albion's life is a constant state of orgasmal frenzy, if you will, in his never-ending quest for facts to satisfy his empty nature. But, ironically, he is almost undone when Nora, his long-suffering wife, reveals, she too, is engaged in fact-finding research. "It crossed my mind that this assembling of facts was a kind of parody of my own beautiful catalogued battery of information...." Albion always presumed that he "any day now--would sit down and assemble all his researches into something definitive" as if this would finally validate him in life and make him whole. Albion's Story might be Grenville's Portrait of Dorian Grey, but this portrait, instead of aging, simply fades away.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Albion's Story, December 2, 2000

By 

judith O. (Providence) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Albion's Story (Paperback)

Kate Greenville does a wonderful job developing the characters ,especially of the vile Albin. He is seen as a man with no inner self, no moral's and finally no real point in his life. Not a " fun" read,still I had no time to notice this until the end as I was so caught up in the passage of a family into disintergration.