A cycle of novels featuring 12 18th-century fictional apprentices. Bound to a master for seven years, the apprentices have a hard life but all live with hope.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
An early work by the author of The December Rose features the tales of 12 apprentices, each one dreaming of a better life. Ages 10-14.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Trust Leon Garfield, always literate in 18th-century London, to transform offbeat period material into an engrossing read. Here he introduces a string of apprentices in separate chapters, assigns them authentic occupations and identities, and just perceptibly interlocks their stories through several months of fictional time. Thus Possul, the lamplighter's linkboy, walks by most of the characters after his opening chapter; the midwife and the mirror-frame carver both stop in the mirror-maker's house; and virtually all have some contact, passing or more lasting, with the Noades funeral, And the stories themselves have integrity. The undertaker's daughter, somewhat morbidly attached to a buried corpse, gets a living reprieve from a rival undertaker's romantic apprentice. And two pawn-broker's assistants in cahoots, find their petty thievery foiled - an incident with its own redeeming features. Subtle class distinctions and the daily grime emerge as well as religious and political items: as the Jewish clockmaker's family celebrates Passover, an uninvited guest appears at the door opened for Elijah, and the printer's apprentice has the wrong stock burned to please an author's appealing daughter. Clever - an assemblage of Dickensian names (Moss, Blister, Bunting, Gully) and distinct faces. (Kirkus Reviews)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
why's it out of print???,
By "teencynic" (Nicosia, Cyprus) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Apprentices (Puffin Books) (Mass Market Paperback)
This is probably one of the best books I've ever read. Novels. It's very simple, from the speech to the layout, but it's dealt with so beautifully that even the macabre side isn't disturbing. Set in the sometimes-seamy underworld of the 18th century, it starts with an odd-job boy who becomes apprenticed to a lamplighter after doing the man a favour. Then, as the year goes by, it's woven in with the tales of eleven other apprentices. From the undertaker's daughter on Valentine's Day to the wig maker's assistant charming girls for their hair, there are tales of love, either lost or won, of misery, or just the joy of being alive. Like, when I like a book, it's hard to write about it lucidly, but please believe me -it's wonderful.
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