Gentlemen in England [Hardcover]

A. N. Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 1985

In this Victorian comedy, Horace, a volcano expert and an atheist, and his wife, Charlotte, have not spoken in 15 years. Their lovely daughter is possibly tubercular, and their son has decided to become a Catholic priest. A deft and amusing tale of love and marriage.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Well-fed gentlemen of the 1880s had their pieties and cravings, their terrible doubts. Acclaimed British novelist Wilson (The Healing Art, Wise Virgin) anatomizes the age with sprightliness, affection and penetrating satire, while peeling the wraps off Victorian marriage. Smug, dog-faced geology professor Nettleshiphis field is volcanosrapes his wife Charlotte on discovering her shamelessly volcanic desire for blond painter Timothy Lupton, who really adores their giggling, consumptive daughter Maudie. Their son Lionel falls under the spell of monkish Father Cuthbert. Decaying dandies recall bygone flirtations and, over whist and madeira, smirk at the new earnestness. Individual passions, with all their guilts and sweats, are seen in terms of questions that cracked the Victorian edifice: Darwinism, the crisis of faith, art caught between the habit of daubing classical nymphs and the lure of the Impressionists' dissolving Light. Wilson shows how fiction shapes mentality: "We're living in the stories of our own composing," whether medieval gothics or penny shockers. Skillful in its probes of a changing society, Gentlemen in England treats us to a rich and sparkling read. U.K. rights: Hamish Hamilton; translation rights: Literistic. February
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The Nettleship family, ensconced in middle-class Victorian manners and ritual, is nonetheless living in emotional turmoil: Professor Nettleship, a geologist, has lost his faith in God and his rapport with his wife: Charlotte has not spoken to her husband for 15 years. Their son Lionel wants to become a priest, and young Maudie, frail and sensitive, tries unsucessfully to understand the adult world. A Bohemian artist and a worldly, well-born family friend help bring tensions to the surface. A curiously leaden tone pervades this novel; it may be the attempt at arch humor, but it has a sopoforic affect. And as psychological novels about centuries other than our own often do, this one slips occasionally into an anachronistic and smug tone that doesn't quite work. All the same, avid Wilson fans and Anglophiles will probably be entertained by the atmosphere and the plot's ins and outs. Laurie Spector Sullivan, Regis Coll. Archives, Weston, Mass.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd; 1St Edition edition (September 2, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0241116651
• ISBN-13: 978-0241116654
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,480,687 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I found this book quite good, November 8, 2008

By 

Joy S. Godfrey "Not fooled" (The Great Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gentlemen in England: A Vision (Mass Market Paperback)

I read this book several years ago, and promptly sent it to my fiance in Australia. We both enjoyed it. It's a commentary, leaning toward satire on the mores, social customs and class system of an England that's now gone.
I thought the storyline was interesting.The "misunderstanding" central to the story served to illustrate just how rigid society's rules of the day were, and how much they effected the lives of people in all strata of that society.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the effort, August 9, 2006

By 

Ruth E. Geraci "Reading for fun in Alabama" (Summerdale, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Gentlemen in England: A Vision (Mass Market Paperback)

A.N. Wilson's fiction "Gentlemen in England" is not worth the effort it took for me to get all the way through it. He seems determined to impress us with his linguistic abilities, sprinkling the text with polysyllabic vocabulary, foreign phrases, and longwinded descriptions. Apparently the book is meant to be humorous, however, I found it smug and self-indulgent. I did eventually develop a moderate interest in the characters and their machinations, then became totally disgusted with the ending, which is non-existent. It is as though Mr. Wilson got tired of the story, and quit. Don't waste your time on this one.